


Through Fields of Wild Flowers

by Interestingpumpkin



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Avengers Compound, Avengers Tower, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Intense Argument, Long-Term Relationship(s), M/M, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Multiple Soulmates, Pining, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate AU, True Love, awkward idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-31 18:04:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21450460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Interestingpumpkin/pseuds/Interestingpumpkin
Summary: Prompt: People have flower buds that grow from their head that slowly grow the closer you get to meeting your soulmate. Most people have more than one type of flower that grows, each species signifying a different soulmate. They grow at different rates and only bloom when you touch your soulmate for the first time. When you’ve met all of your soulmates, you have a flower crown that stays vivacious and flourishing until you die. - from sorryimacrapwriter on TumblrSummary: You’ve lived a life full of adventure and excitement, you’ve met interesting people, and you’ve fought them too. This is the story of how you found your soulmates and the journey to find your perfect match.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes & Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel) & Reader, Sam Wilson (Marvel) & Reader, Scott Lang & Reader, Scott Lang/Reader, Steve Rogers & Reader, Tony Stark & Reader
Comments: 6
Kudos: 66





	Through Fields of Wild Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> This was an entry for sorryimacrapwriter's writing challenge on Tumblr. I'm actually super proud of this fic? I really hope that y'all enjoy it as much as I loved writing it.
> 
> As a warning, there is a pretty big fight between the reader and Steve partway through, but the blowup is short-lived. If you'd like to skip it, the fight starts at _"What the hell are you doing in my room, Steve?"_ and ends after _“I’m sorry,” he murmured. He sounded like he was about to cry too. “I should have just asked. I should have known better.”_ It's a long time coming at that point in the story, but please don't read it if that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable!
> 
> The majority of the relationships in this piece are platonic, but Stucky is the background endgame pairing of this fic, and their story is pretty tightly mixed into the story, which I had a lot of fun with.
> 
> Please enjoy!

I vividly remember my first bloom. I was fourteen. Her name was Kara. We met in art class and immediately became best friends. The little pink carnations that sprouted overnight just solidified her place in my life and we both squealed when we saw each other the next morning. Of course, we got teased initially. No one finds their soulmate at fourteen, and girls definitely didn’t have soulmates that were also girls. That just simply wasn’t what was done. We shrank from the abuse, but our flowers never withered. We never grew apart. We were best friends. Forever bonded. We were soulmates.

We were taught about soulmates from a young age. Adults talked about the bonds between humans and the flower crowns that sprouted and bloomed when we met our mates. When our souls met and the ties of fate seemed to finally solidify. Soulmates were played up to be these important romantic connections, and it’s clear that no one ever thought about the possibility of platonic soulmates. The concept was pretty openly ridiculed. I just thought that the fuller crowns were more beautiful. That those people were lucky to have so many people important to them in their lives to care about and love.

Most of our parents only had one or two blooms in their crowns and they very rarely told us who they got them from, brushing us off when we asked, saying something about not remembering. Most kids gave up after they were yelled at for pressing the issue one too many times. After that, they wouldn’t really look for answers on their own. Now that I’m older, I think our parents were scared to admit that their blooms weren’t from their spouse. The shame surrounding such a thing has never been something that I understood. My parents had always been very upfront with me about their relationship. None of their soulmates had ever been romantic connections and they didn’t see the point of chasing after that connection when they had already found happiness together. Looking back now, I realize that I was lucky to have had the education I did.

As I got older, I never really found myself obsessing over finding my soulmates. I graduated from high school and moved on to college. I watched as everyone around me filled out their crowns and rushed into relationships. I never understood it. Everyone wound up heartbroken and slumped in their seats the next day.

I met Scott Lang in my junior year of college. Somehow we wound up on the roof of the student apartment building when someone’s party got out of hand. We both wanted to escape. At that time I still only had my little pink carnations and Scott had a spray of clover haloing his head.

“Looks like your crown is off to a good start,” he said.

“Hm?”

“The carnations.” He gestured to my head. “They’re pretty.”

“Oh yeah, thanks.” I smiled. “Had ‘em since I was fourteen.”

“No shit?”

“Wouldn’t lie about it.”

“That’s kind of awesome.”

“Y’think so?”

He shrugged. “Dunno about you, but I think it must have been pretty cool to have met someone you clicked with like that at fourteen.” He grinned. “You two still in touch?”

“Yeah, she’s at uni like three states over. Didn’t really want to stay too close to home. Her folks are shit, y’know?”

“I get it.”

“Yeah…” I wrapped my blanket tighter around me. “It was nice to meet her so young, but we got teased _so much_ as kids. No one really got it.”

“They were just jealous.”  
I snorted. “I doubt it. Kids we went to school with were total fucking heathens. They’d spit on anyone they thought was queer, even if they weren’t actually together.”

“Are you?”

“Am I what?”

He gestures vaguely. “Y’know.”

“Queer? Or are we together?”

“Yes.”

I laughed. “Yes on the first one, no on the second. Kara and I are just best friends. Platonic soulmates, through and through.”

“Really?”

“Really what?”

“The platonic soulmates thing,” he says. “You really think that’s true?”

“You think I’m lying?”

He jerkily shook his head. “No, I’m just surprised there’s someone else who thinks the same! That’s where I got this green shit,” He pointed to the clover. “Best friend in high school. I got lucky just to have the green stuff. My buddy got baby’s breath and everyone just thought he had really bad dandruff till he met his girl last year and his crown filled out a bit.”

I snorted. “Why didn’t he just cut his hair?”

“And admit his first flower was _baby’s breath_? Hell no!”

I laughed genuinely for the first time that entire year. “That totally sucks.”

“Hell yeah it did.” He studied my carnations. “What’d Kara get?”

I grinned. “She got pink carnations too. We match.”

“That is ridiculously cute.”

“Thanks.” I stuck my hand out to him. “I’m (Y/N), by the way.”

He took it and smiled. “Scott.”

“Nice to meet you, Scott. What’re you studying?”

“Electrical engineering. You?”

“Linguistics and English lit.”

“That sounds awful.”

I laughed and nodded. “Can be, sometimes. I feel like the same could be said of electrical engineering, though.”

“You’re probably right. But you gotta love what you do, right?”

“Yeah, exactly. Neither of us would be in our fields if we didn’t like them.”

He grinned and nodded, satisfied with my answer. He glanced down at his watch and scrambled to his feet. “Shit, I gotta get to bed. I have class in like six hours.”

“What time is it?”

“It’s almost one.”

“_Shit_, I have to go too.”

We hurried back to the staircase together and rushed off to our respective apartments, but not before promising to meet each other for lunch the next day. When I woke up in the morning, forget-me-nots were scattered among the carnations, the periwinkle in perfect contrast with the soft pink. When I saw Scott later that day with little daisies dotted among his clover, I didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the week.

Scott graduated the year before me and we both went into our separate fields. I started training with S.H.I.E.L.D. as an agent and text analyst as Scott finished his first year at a prestigious internship. He made me one of his groomsmen and laughed when I chose to wear a suit. He admitted that he hadn’t expected anything different.

We lost touch when he went to prison.

Clint Barton was there to fill the void that Scott left.

I met him early on in my training. He had a good sense of humor and was the only agent who could give me any valuable pointers on how to improve my aim. We became fast friends after I graduated from the academy and I was quickly placed on his regular mission team. When questioned, he said it had nothing to do with him. As it turned out, it had a little to do with him, a little _more_ to do with Agent Romanoff, and a lot to do with my test scores.

“I have no idea why they still let me work with you guys,” I said one day. “I mean, I’m practically spring green next to you two. I have no business working on these high profile cases.”

He scowled at me. “You’ve been an agent for almost three years now and you haven’t fucked up _once_. Of course they’re gonna keep putting you on high profile cases. That’s the reward for good work.”

“I know you pulled some strings though. Natasha did too, which really scares me because I don’t know what I did l to earn that.”

He shrugged. “Nat knows who she works well with. That’s usually someone who stays out of the way and does what they’re told, which is _you_, or it’s someone who is the exact opposite.”

“Which is you,” I teased.

He puffed out his chest. “Exactly.”

“I don’t think that’s why she likes you, though. I think you saw something good in her and disregarded the ugly stuff instead of making a big deal out of it.”

He snorts. “She thinks she owes me a debt.”

“It’s more than that. Someone like Natasha wouldn’t protect someone just because she owes them. She’s going to protect the people she cares about.”

“She’s right.” Natasha appeared out of nowhere and startled me so badly I nearly sent the stack of files I’d been carrying flying down the hallway.

“I swear you do that because you want me to drop something.”

“Just a little.”

I scowled at her and she smirked. We walked a little further down the hall before I stopped.

“I need you to clarify something.” When she nodded I continued. “Did you really just say that I was _right_?”

“I did.”

“Holy shit.” I turned and looked at Clint. “That will never happen again. _Ever_.”

“File it away for a really shitty day,” he said.

I shoved him and he laughed. “You’re an ass, Barton.”

“And your superior officer,” he said, puffing out his chest and squaring his shoulders.

“We’re not in the military.”

He shrugged. “Close enough.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know why you’re not celebrating this more. This admission is a _huge_ step forward.”

“Nat and I are comfortable where we are. No noticeable steps forward or back necessary.”

“You two are weird,” I muttered.

“Says the one with only platonic soulmates.”

“I’m not the only one who has them, you know. Have you looked in the mirror recently?”

“What?”

“You _do_ have a new flower,” Natasha admitted.

I handed him my tablet to use as a mirror. He snatched from my hand and immediately started examining his hairline.

“What are these?!”

“Acacia, I think,” I answered. “They showed up about the same time I got these snowdrops.”

Natasha snorted. “Looks like we’re stuck with her now, Clint.”

“Aww, you say that like it’s a bad thing!”

Clint laughed but sobered quickly.

“So… you’re one of my soulmates?” he asked, completely bewildered.

“Yeah, guess so.” I looked between him and Natasha, amused. “Have neither of you considered who you got your flowers from?”

“Not really,” Clint admitted.

“I try not to,” said Natasha.

“Well, maybe you should.” I smiled at them and took my tablet from Clint. “It’s just nice to know sometimes.”

“Huh.”

“You might ask Natasha about who she got those snapdragons from.” I winked at Clint and excused myself to finish up paperwork.

After that, Clint was more open with his emotions (though I’d use “open” tentatively because Clint was, and continues to be, complete shit at all kinds of relationships.) He was at least more comfortable with talking about his soulmates. Natasha never really warmed up to me, but I’d like to think that her teasing became significantly less scathing and that she’s maybe a little more protective of me than when we first met. So long as she’s not trying to kill me, I’ll take what I can get.

Things changed irreversibly when Loki showed up. Suddenly we had walking, talking science experiments and a genius, billionaire, philanthropist mixing with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in hopes of saving the world. Of course, nothing went according to plan. We lost Coulson and the city was left in ruins, but it wasn’t a crater in the Atlantic. We won. Things could have been worse. It didn’t seem like it at the time, but they could have.

The Avengers disbanded after that. I went back to working regularly with S.H.I.E.L.D., but I was reassigned to Captain America’s designated Strike team. I worked more closely with Natasha than I ever had before, but throughout my time with the team, I feel like I’d never known less about her. Working with Steve Rogers wasn’t any kind of walk in the park either. So long as you hang around or ally yourself with Captain America, you’re guaranteed to get into trouble. The longer you’re around him, the greater the danger you put yourself in. I just barely managed to sneak away with Maria before S.H.I.E.L.D. shat the bed and was entirely taken over by Hydra.

S.H.I.E.L.D. went through a hard reset. Arrests were made and Furry faked his death. Though S.H.I.E.L.D. was gone from the public eye, I doubt it was completely out of operation. Nick wouldn’t have let it die that easily. Maybe losing S.H.I.E.L.D. was good for society as a whole, but with the loss of my job, I felt like I was stranded on my own for the first time since college.

“Where will you go?” Steve asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Might look for work in the private sector. Maybe freelance, or something.”

“You really wanna do that?”

“No, not really. But my best friend just had her first kid and my other best friend is in prison for the foreseeable future-”

“Prison?”

I waved him off. “He pulled a Robin Hood and got caught, it’s not important. The point is! I sure as hell can’t take a desk job with Stark. That just can’t happen.”

“Would it be that bad?”

“The idea of answering to Tony Stark for the rest of my career would be awful, and you know it. Especially after working as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for so long.”

“There’s always the CIA.”

“You know I’d rather jump off a cliff.”

He laughed. “What’s left after that?”

“I could always tag along with you and Wilson,” I said. “I’ve never tracked down a Hydra assassin before.”

“I can’t ask you to do that, (Y/N).”

“Too bad, I’m volunteering. I don’t have a job anymore. That frees up a lot of time for me.”

“It could be dangerous.”

“What the hell kind of job do you think I was doing before I met you? I was the third agent on Clint and Natasha’s team straight out of the academy. I’m a good agent, Steve. Maybe even a little better than good.”

“I’m not saying you aren’t.”

“Then let me help you, you stubborn, bull-headed, I’ll-do-it-all-myself, idiot! This isn’t a two-person job, and it sure as hell isn’t a matter of you not being able to do it on your own. It’s one of recognizing that you don’t _have_ to.”

Steve stared at me, mouth hanging slightly open. He closed and opened it again, trying and failing to find his words. Eventually, he gave up and just looked at me. After a couple of seconds, it felt like he was just looking through me. Like he had been reliving a distant memory.

“Did I break you or something?” I snapped my fingers to bring him back. “Steve, are you okay?”

He blinked rapidly and shook his head. It took a moment for his eyes to settle on me again.

“Sorry,” he said. “You just sounded a lot like Bucky there.”

“Oh, Steve…”

“Don’t apologize,” he said, holding out one hand to stop me. “He just… he said something almost exactly like that when we were kids.”

“Are you sure? It sounds like I hit a little too close to home.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s what I needed to hear. Then _and_ now.”

“Oh. Well… good.”

He laughed. “I guess I’ve always been stubborn.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“Because you know me.” He pressed his lips together and looked me over. “You sure you wanna do this?”

“Yeah, Steve. I’m sure.”

We may have been a little too confident at the outset, though.

Three months into our research, we hit a dead end. Tony had offered us free use of his resources, and we still came up with nothing. One time, around three in the morning, I found Steve sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. I sat beside him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Maybe we should take a break,” I whispered.

“No,” he said, wiping tears from his cheeks. “No. We can keep going.”

“Steve, this is clearly taking a huge toll on you.”

He shook his head. “(Y/N), you don’t understand. I’ve already lost him once. I can’t lose him again.”

I nodded. “Okay, we’ll keep going.”

He sighed and his shoulders sagged. “I just can’t give up. He deserves better than that.”

“I know.” The sadness in his eyes made my heart ache and I pulled him into a hug. “C’mere.”

He readily wrapped his arms around me and rested his forehead against my shoulder.

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” he mumbled.

“Don’t apologize, I volunteered. Practically threw myself at you.”

He laughed and pulled away, sniffling loudly. “Maybe we’re both a little too stubborn.”

“Maybe.” I smiled sadly. “He’s one of your soulmates, isn’t he?”

He nodded, a slow flush coloring his cheeks. “Figured it out right after he was shipped off. Had our first ones when we were kids, but I woke up the morning after he left and I had these roses.” He sighed and ghosted his fingers over the delicate red petals. “Losing that again… I don’t know what I would do.”

“We’ll get him back, Steve. I promise.”

Little orange California poppies bloomed in my crown that night and white snapdragons joined Steves roses. We never talked about it, but Steve trusted me more fully after that. He trusted me as someone to confide in and knew that anything he told me would stay between the two of us. He was more willing to listen to my suggestions and, because of that, I figured out how to get him to loosen up. Tony has begged for years to know my secret, and I’ve told him, but he never believes me.

Shit hit the fan when Ultron arrived, I watched the way it ate at everyone and wished I could change something. I wasn’t able to follow the team to Wakanda and, instead, stayed back with Sam, working on our missing persons case. When we were called in as backup, we packed up and hauled ass to Sokovia. When we arrived, S.H.I.E.L.D. had sent a helicarrier, which was hovering a ways off and slowly shuttling people off of the floating city to safety. I wasn’t able to do much on the ground, but when Ultron started firing at Clint, Pietro thought fast enough to get a car in front of him and the child, and I could see that he hadn’t thought past that. I managed to throw myself at him in time to knock him back behind the car. Neither of us escaped the bullets, but we lived.

“I’m gonna kill you, (Y/N),” Clint hissed. “I’m supposed to be the one who gets hurt on missions, not you.”

I laughed and pressed my hand against the wound in my side. Clint tore strips of fabric from my jacket to tie around the wounds in my arm and thigh.

“I’m so glad you care, Clint.” I patted his cheek with my unbloodied hand when he glared at me. “I can survive a few bullet holes, though. I promise I’ll heal.”

I hissed when he cinched the fabric around my wounds but laughed when he showed concern. Pietro grumbled about no one caring about him and Clint and I both laughed. Steve and Natasha showed up just after that to help us limp to the helicarrier. We got everyone off the rock. We saved the day. We healed. We moved on and figured out better ways to operate.

Moving upstate was bizarre, but stranger still was being inducted as an official, full-time Avenger. Team meetings were required for everyone as we had gained six new members in Sam, Wanda, Vision, Pietro, Rhodey, and I. Learning to work as a team had been hard enough the first time around, but that was due in part to the fact that we hadn’t known each other. We started the meetings in hopes that we might grow as a team, and maybe even a family. It was bumpy in the beginning, but we worked it out after a fashion and fell into a comfortable rhythm of work and teasing. Things finally started to fall into place.

However, Bruce and Tony both secluded themselves in the lab, having been more affected by the Sokovia incident than they wanted to let on. It got to the point that Steve and I had to implement separate schedules for the two of them. Bruce’s included mandatory therapy sessions, group or otherwise, and yoga classes. Tony refused therapy, but started regularly training with Steve and I. Bruce was easy to convince to stick to the schedule. Tony, however, tried to get out of it at every turn, always saying he had something more important to do. It took two months of Steve and I chasing him down before realizing the way we had been teaching him just didn’t work. Steve was strict about the way that he taught, not always sure how to help someone develop their own fighting style, and his flashy acrobatics certainly didn’t suit Tony. We settled on me helping him after I kicked his ass for a week straight.

Because he already had some martial arts training, he knew the basics. I could work with the basics. We went straight into sparring instead of trying to start him out from the very beginning. Tony’s mind doesn’t work well with training wheels, and so I didn’t bother with them. Training with me helped him realize that he needed to learn these skills. Knowing how to block a punch didn’t do shit when someone with decades of training and combat experience came at you, especially when you’re Tony Stark without a suit.

“I’m a week away from kicking your ass, (Y/N),” he’d said after I’d laid him out one day.

“Of course you are,” I helped him to his feet. “And I’m a world-class astrophysicist.”

“Haha, very funny,” He said. “But I’m being serious. I think I’m close. I just can’t get the footwork right.”

“You’ll get it, Tony. This isn’t something that’s just going to come to you overnight. It’s gonna take a little time.” I took his elbows in my hands and lifted his arms. “Let’s go again. Lead with the foot opposite the arm you’ll strike with. Try not to leave yourself open and mix the skills you already have with what I’m teaching you. Maybe you’ll have better success then.”

He nodded and fell back into his fighting stance. He swung wide and I slapped his fist down. We went back and forth, trading blows, ducking, dodging, and occasionally stumbling when someone actually managed to make contact. Tony managed to catch me in the stomach and then the jaw and I spun away so that I was no longer facing him head-on. When I turned back to him, he was running at me, fist raised and ready to strike. I held my ground and, as soon as he was close enough, I grabbed his arm, shoved my shoulder into his stomach, and flipped him onto his back. His back hit the mat and wheezed when his breath was forced from his lungs. I rubbed my jaw and crouched beside him.

“I almost had you,” he said, his voice strained.

“Kind of.”

“I got a couple good shots in though,” he paused, taking several gasping breaths. “Right?”

I laughed and nodded. “Yeah, you definitely did. I’ll have a few new bruises for sure.”

He weakly pumped his fist and I laughed.

“Maybe I’m _not_ a week away from kicking your ass.”

I grinned at him. “So you’re saying I was right?”

He groaned. “Yes, I’m saying you were right.”

I laughed and let myself plop down on the mat. “You may not be a week away, but you’re getting there.”

“You really think so?” he asked. It took me a moment to realize he wasn’t being sarcastic.

“Of course I do. You’ve made quick progress.” I poked him in the stomach where my shoulder dug in and he winced. “I’m not going to say you could ever take on Nat and live, but you could hold your own against a couple of Hydra thugs or something.”

“You know what? I’ll take it.” He took several deep breaths. “Can we call it a day? I don’t think I can take much more physical abuse.”

“Sure.” I offered him a hand up and he took it. “You usually want to keep going, though. You got a hot date or something?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

He frowned and moved to the bench for his water bottle.

“Are things alright between you and Pepper?”

“I…” He sighed. “Things have definitely been better.”

“What’s going on?” I immediately backpedaled, realizing how invasive that question could be. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, of course.”

He shook his head. “No, I trust you. It’s just that things were great after I destroyed my suits.”

“That was a great fireworks show, by the way.”

“You saw it?”

“Someone caught it on camera and uploaded it to Youtube. Almost went viral, I think.”

“Makes sense.”

“Mm, yeah.” I sighed softly. “But please, go on.”

“Right, yeah. Things were great, but then S.H.I.E.L.D. broke up like a bad boy band, Hydra came back, and _then_ I accidentally made Ultron. I’ve had to spend more and more time away from Pepper and things have become strained between us.”

“Sounds like you need to take some time off.”

“But-”

“No, look, you and Pepper need some extra time alone and we just picked up a few new full-time recruits. Steve is more than capable of leading, and Clint can fly just about anything. If we need a man in a tin can or help with Tech we’ve got Rhodes, who is more than qualified to help.” I placed a gentle hand on his arm. “You need some time away, and I think it needs to be now.”

He frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. So long as you let Steve know you’re leaving, it’s not like you have to put in a request for time off.”

“Am I really gonna do this?”

“Yes, you are. Because you need it, and your relationship needs it.”

“I don’t know how to take time off.”

“What do you mean?”

“What are you supposed to do? Go somewhere?”

“I mean, you can if you want. Or you could spend time at home, watch TV, read, cook, spend some plain ole boring time alone with your girlfriend when she gets home from work. I don’t know, just…” I shrugged. “Be mundane for a while.”

“That’s it?”

“Think of it like an experiment or a trial or whatever it is you science types do.”

“Didn’t you say one of your soulmates is an electrical engineer?” he asked, one eyebrow cocked.

“You know what? Shut up.” He laughed. “What I mean is that it’s going to be a little hard and it’ll probably be frustrating, but you’ll find something that works for you. Being a functional human being outside of this job isn’t easy, but if you can figure it out it’ll be worth it.”

“I’m gonna take time off,” he said, more resolutely this time.

I nodded. “You’re gonna take some time off. And when you get back, I’m gonna make Steve do the same.”

“Good. He only seems to listen to you and Sam these days.”

“Maybe the three of us should gang up on him then. We might be able to get him to take a weekend away or something.”

“What makes you think I could get through to him?”

I shrugged. “You’ve known each other for a long time. He trusts you and he trusts your judgment. But…” I sighed. “It’ll probably have to wait till after we manage to find Bucky.”

“That could take a while.”

“I know.” I shook my head. “We’ll worry about one thing at a time, starting with the fact that you need to get out of here and go spend time with Pepper.”

He laughed when I turned him around by his shoulders and pushed him towards the door.

“Thank you, (Y/N),” he said.

“For what?”

“Just letting me talk. For listening.”

I smiled. “We’ll do it again soon. You don’t get the opportunity nearly as often as you need.”

“I’m certain someone would disagree with you. But still, I appreciate it.”

“I’ve got your back, Tony. We all do. Now _leave_ before one or both of us gets in trouble with Pepper.”

He laughed and disappeared into the hall.

He tracked me down two days after coming back from his little break, absolutely panicked. I asked him what was wrong and he gestured wildly at his flower crown.

“Where the hell did _these_ come from?!”

“What?” I looked a little closer. “I’m guessing the marigold is new?”

“Why yes, (Y/N), they _are_.”

“Okay, and what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know!” he admitted, his voice shrill.

“Then can we please not yell about this?” I asked. “It’s not a big deal. I’ve got a new flower too.”

“Wait, you do?”

“Yeah.” I pointed out the little bachelor buttons that had recently bloomed. “Cute, right?”

“From me?”

“Probably.”

“But…”

“It’s not a scandal, Tony. We aren’t romantically involved. You know that, I know that, and Pepper is more than smart enough to know that I am in no way any kind of threat. We’re just friends. You have at least one other platonic soulmate.”

“Who?”

I deadpanned. “Seriously?” When he didn’t say anything I rolled my eyes. “Rhodey, dumbass.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Oh. Yeah.”

“You seriously never thought about that?”

He shrugged. “It never seemed all that important.”

“How you and Clint are so alike, I will never understand.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Are we good, then? Can I assume that you’re not going to freak out anymore?”

He nodded and swallowed thickly. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Great! Because it’s honestly nothing to worry about.”

“How can you be so calm about all of this?”

“Well, let’s see…” I sighed. “As of right now, three of the original Avengers, that’s counting you, are soulmates of mine. Each of my soulmates is a person that I care deeply about and would do anything for, regardless of whether or not they wear a costume. At the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to. I care about you, you guys care about me, and I feel secure in those connections.”

“That’s… kind of calming.”

“I’m guessing you never really went looking for any information about soulmates when you were a kid.”

He shook his head. “No, not really. Just knew what they spouted off to us at school.”

“Okay, well, think of that like the shitty sex ed they teach.” Tony snorted and I grinned at him. “They give you what’s essentially the heterosexual, p in v, missionary style explanation of soulmates. The fact of the matter is, there are so few rules to having soulmates that it’s pretty useless to take them as a sign that you’ve found true love or whatever the fuck they tell kids. I read as many books as I could get my hands on and I was lucky that my parents didn’t snap at me when I pestered them.”

“And what’d they tell you?.”

“Well, they’re not each other’s romantic soulmate,” I said. “They met each other, fell in love, and didn’t really see any point in looking for that one true love that everyone loses their minds over. I learned from a young age that love is a choice and not an assignment. Sure, we have soulmates, but what we do with that is our choice.”

“You are way too young to be spouting off this kind of philosophy,” he said.

I laughed. “I’m really not that young, Tony. I’m only a little bit younger than Clint.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. How old did you think I was?”

“I don’t know. Probably closer to Wanda than Clint, that’s for sure.”

“Well, maybe now you’ll know better than to judge a book by its cover.”

He rolled his eyes. “As enlightening as this has been, I should get back to work.”

“You mean the project you’ve been neglecting for three hours?”

“It just needed to be left alone for a while!” he said defensively.

I grinned at him. “I’m teasing you, Tony. Thought you might have figured that out by now.”

“You’re very mean, you know that right?”

“Haven’t had any complaints yet.”

He snorted and shook his head. “Thank you, though. I don’t think anyone would have talked to me about this shit like you can.”

“You don’t have to thank me for talking to you like a normal person, Tony.”

He laughed. “Okay. I’ll be sure to go to you if I need it, though.”

“It’d be an honor.” My phone chimed and I pushed back from the table. “Looks like Steve’s got a new lead.”

Tony smiled and gestured to the door. “That’s your cue to leave, (Y/N). Just make sure he’s taking breaks or something. You know how he is.”

“Yeah, I do.” I paused in the doorway. “You really should put in some time on that project, though. It probably misses you.”

He scoffed and waved me out the door. “Just _go_.”

I laughed and left for Steve’s office.

As it turned out, Steve had found the first solid evidence of Bucky’s whereabouts outside of the few blurry security camera shots we’d found early in our search. The three of us, Sam, Steve, and I, spent nearly three weeks corroborating the new intel and a solid week after that preparing to do recon. Our source agreed to meet, but only if Steve went alone. As sketchy as it sounded, Steve agreed and left to meet with them.

In the week that he was gone, Tony, Natasha, and Clint each lead training missions that took them out of state. Sam and I were left behind to look after the compound. With all of the security protocols, there wasn’t much for us to do. That is, until we got an unexpected visitor.

“What’s going on down there, Sam?”

_“I had a sensor trip, but I don’t see anything.”_ He scans the rooftop and his goggles lock onto something. _“Wait a second.”_

“What the hell is that?” I muttered.

_“I can see you,”_ Sam said in the most authoritative tone he could manage.

Where there wasn’t a man before stood someone in a red, black, and silver suit. When the mask was lifted, I just about fell out of my chair.

_“Hi, I’m Scott.”_

“What the _fuck_?!”

_“What are you doing here?”_ Sam asked.

_“First off,”_ Scott said. _“I’m a big fan.”_

I smacked one hand to my forehead.

_“Appreciate it. So who the hell are you?”_

Scott puffed up his chest. _“I’m Ant-Man.”_

_“Ant-Man?”_ Sam was doing his best not to laugh.

_“What, you haven’t heard of me?”_ Scott deflated and laughed at himself. _“No, you wouldn’t have heard of me.”_

“Figure out what he wants, Sammy, we haven’t got all day.”

_“You wanna tell me what you want?”_

_“I was hoping I could grab a piece of technology for just a few days, and return it. I need to save the world. You know how it is.”_

_“I know exactly how it is.”_ Sam turned away to talk to me. _“I’m bringing him in, (Y/N).”_

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to turn your back on him,” I said.

_“Sorry about this,” _Scott said. He shrank and as he jumped at Sam. There was nothing Sam could do to counter it.

The rest was a blur. There wasn’t anything I could do to help outside of hoping Sam could avoid crashing. In the end, Sam wound up out in the field on his back.

_“What the FUCK was that?”_ Sam demanded.

“I think that was my Scott,” I said. I couldn’t manage any kind of inflection. Seeing Scott after so many years had pretty much shorted out my brain.

_“The hell do you mean ‘your’ Scott?”_

“Soulmate Scott, forget-me-not Scott. Met-in-college, grooms woman-at-his-wedding Scott.”

_“Well shit.”_

“Yeah.”

_“Well, I want you to know that it is very important to me that cap never finds out about this.”_

That made me laugh hard enough to snap me out of my funk. “Fine, I won’t tell him.”

_“Thank you-”_

“But only if you help me track down Scott.”

_“You wanna bring him back here?”_

“Help me find my idiot, dumbass, best friend, and I won’t tell Steve he kicked your ass.”

He grumbled and stomped his way back to the main building.

_“Fine.”_ He fell silent. _“Does he know you’re an Avenger?”_

“Nope.”

He laughed and began jogging back._ “Nevermind, count me one hundred percent in.”_

“You’re a little too excited about that, Sam.”

_“I just wanna see two best friends reunited, is all!”_

“Yeah, sure. Just get back here. I think Steve is supposed to call in like ten minutes.”

Sam and I found Scott easily enough but decided to put off paying him a visit until after Steve got back. There wasn’t much to learn, as it turned out. Steve met with the guy, got pretty much the same information, and then stuck around for a while to see what he could dig up on his own. From what he could find, Bucky moved several times over the course of five months and had finally settled down for more than a month. If we didn’t act then, there was no way of knowing how long we’d have till he packed up again. Sam and I officially put Scott on the back burner and prepared to leave for Bucharest.

We had two days of prep before we left and then three days to get the lay of the land. The district Bucky was staying in was nice enough and had a little farmers market just across from the building he was living in.

When it was time for us to move in, Steve set Sam up on the roof to keep a lookout and decided to take me into the apartment with him. We wore civilian clothes and hoped for the best. It felt wrong going into something like this unarmed. It felt like someone had been watching us and it made me antsy. However, we got into the building just fine and no one stopped us on the way up to the apartment.

Steve knocked on the door and I stood beside him to wait. Bucky took his time answering the door and even then, he only opened it a crack. He looked like he wanted to slam the door as soon as he saw who was on the other side.

“We just wanted to say thank you,” I blurted out.

At that, he opened the door a smidge more.

“For what?”

“I don’t know… maybe for hauling Steve’s reckless ass out of the Potomac.”

The corner of his mouth almost turned up into a smile. He caught himself before it got too far and forced himself to scowl.

“Someone had to,” he grumbled.

“Could we come in?” I asked.

Bucky looked between Steve and I, squinting at both of us.

“Just you,” he said and looked pointedly at me.

“Oh,” I looked at Steve and he nodded. “O-okay.”

I slipped through the door and Bucky closed it behind us. He gestured to the couch and I took a seat. He didn’t and stared down at me from where he stood instead.

I pressed my lips together and looked around the apartment.

It wasn’t an awful place, really. It was sparsely decorated, and he didn’t have any kind of bed frame under his mattress, but it felt homey. It didn’t feel temporary.

“I’m not going back with you,” he said.

I nodded. “Okay. We won’t make you.”

“Then why did you come?”

I shrugged. “I lost my job after S.H.I.E.L.D. went down. Figured helping Steve look for you wouldn’t be so bad while I looked for other employment. After a couple years, it seemed like meeting you might be cool.”

“You’re… different.”

“Thanks, I pride myself on that.”

He scowled. I raised my eyebrows.

“Weird,” he muttered.

He went off and puttered around the kitchen.

“Why don’t you want to come back?” I asked.

“I’m not what Steve wants me to be. He’d just be disappointed.”

“I think you might be surprised.” He glared at me over his shoulder and I held my hands up. “I’m just saying that Steve’s a purely good dude. He just wants to help you in any way he can.”

“I don’t…” He set down whatever he was working on and gestured to his head. When I tilted my head to the side he sighed, exasperated. “Flowers.”

I realized what he was saying. “Oh.” I stood up and moved to lean against the kitchen island. “Your flower crown isn’t important. It doesn’t define who you are.”

“But I don’t have the ones from _him_.”

“So? Who cares.”

“Him.”

“Nah.”

“You’re annoying.”

“So I’ve been told.” He looked me over several times and went back to his kitchen project. “If you weren’t worried about Captain Jackass out there, would you come back to New York? We’re upstate now. No civilians or anything, unless we get some weirdly adventurous hikers. Then Tony usually finds some kind of weird keepsake for them and sends them on their way.”

“You talk a lot.”

“Yeah, I know. I have a compulsive need to fill the silence. For some people, it adds to my charm, but it’s grating to others. It really just depends.” I watched him slowly put together the makings of some kind of pasta dish. “I can go if you’d like.”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to.”

“If you let me stay, I’ll probably just talk your ear off.” He shrugged. “Alright, then. Just remember, you asked for it.”

I stayed with Bucky and watched him cook for almost an hour. I talked and he rarely answered. The most I got out of him was when he turned down my offer to help. He let me chatter away about books and neglected hobbies. He’d occasionally nod or make vague noises to let me know he was still listening. It worked so well that I was certain I could make friends with him right then and there. Just when I thought I was getting somewhere, Steve got impatient and knocked on the door.

“Looks like that’s my cue to leave.”

“Shame,” he said.

I scrawled my phone number on the back of an old receipt and handed it to him. “Here’s my number. You’re welcome at the compound whenever, even if you don’t want to stay.”

He held the scrap of paper in one hand and watched me walk to the door.

“(Y/N),” he called out.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

I smiled at him, nodded, and let myself out. Steve was anxiously waiting just outside.

“Have you just been standing here the whole time?”

“Yes. Is he coming or not?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. Give him some time, Steve. He’s got some shit to work out on his own before he’ll let himself open up to someone.”

Steve pressed his lips together and nodded. “Fine.”

“I gave him my number and he’s got an open invitation to visit the compound.” I place my hand on his arm. “Like I said, he just needs some time, okay?”

I pull him along behind me to the stairs. He falls in beside me on the first flight.

“All of that work…” He shook his head. “Did we waste our time?”

“What? Absolutely not! Steve, he knows people care about him now. He’s got options that he didn’t have before. A place to go when he needs it.”

“I just… I can’t let him go, (Y/N).”

“I’m not saying you should. But you still have your flowers. Bucky doesn’t. Maybe Hydra cut them, but he knows that he got some of them from you. He’s worried about what you expect from him because of that connection that you still have to him. Just give him time.”

Steve agreed to give him space. Sam joined us and we packed up and went home. It took Bucky a month to contact me. He sent a picture of the Avengers tower in the city with only two words attached: “Meet me?” I readily agreed and only told Clint before I left for New York City.

I plopped down in the seat opposite Bucky at the cafe across the street from the tower. “Didn’t think I’d be hearing from you so soon.” He just stared at me. “Why’d you come?”

He shrugged. “I needed to.”

“I’m guessing you don’t want Steve to know your here?”

“I… not yet,” he said. “I’m still remembering things. Trying to, at least.”

“Okay. Do you have somewhere to stay?”

He shook his head. “I was going to look after this.”

“No need. A friend of mine has an apartment in the city you can use.”

“I don’t know…”

“You don’t have to use it, but you can check it out if you’d like.”

“Okay.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

“Now?”

“I’m gonna get some tea first, but yeah. Now.”

“Why not just have your tea here?”

“I’m not a big fan of hanging around in a crowded place like this.” He gave me a questioning look. “I get recognized if I stick around for too long. It’s not my favorite part of the job.”

“Right. You’re an Avenger.”

“Yup.” I shoved back from the table. “I’ll be right back.”

I got my tea without incident. The barista remembered me from a few years before, when the Avengers were still in the tower. She made pleasant conversation and I was able to get in and out quickly.

Bucky and I walked through the city, weaving through the crowds and dodging bike messengers who would occasionally hop up onto the sidewalk before darting back out into the street. We didn’t really talk, much like Bucharest, but it was easier. A calmer silence than it had been a month ago.

A couple of Clint’s tenants said hello as we made our way up the stairs to Clint’s apartment. I took it as a good sign when the key Clint had given me last time still worked. The place was surprisingly clean when we walked in, with minimal arrows scattered through the apartment, and only one or two mugs on the counter.

“This is… kind of nice,” Bucky said. He sounded surprised and I didn’t blame him.

“Believe me, I am just as shocked as you are.”

“You sure it’d be okay for me to stay here?”

“Clint left on a mission earlier. It should keep him away for, mmm…” I bobbed my head from side to side. “Two or three weeks, give or take a few days.”

“I don’t know…”

The door opened and Simone poked her head in. “Hey, (Y/N).”

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Can I leave Lucky with you?” she asked. When she stepped fully into the apartment, Lucky trotted in after her. “I’m having a hard time getting my boys to take a nap and he’s not helping.”

I laughed and crouched down to pet Lucky. “Are you being a nuisance?” I asked him.

He barked and I just grinned at him. Simone sighed and leaned against the door frame.

“How long do you want me to keep him?”

“Is ‘indefinitely’ an option?”

“I’m afraid not, but I could take him for a few days until Ramona can look after him.”

She pressed her hands together and backed out of the apartment.

“You’re a saint, (Y/N)! A _saint_.”

“Only in select circles!” I called after her.

“People really seem to like you around here,” Bucky said.

I smiled at him. “I spent a lot of time here when Clint took over. He needed all the help he could get ‘cause he didn’t have the money to hire anyone professional yet.”

“And now?”

“Well, now Tony’s paying everyone’s paychecks, so he can do just about anything he wants. He keeps rent low and he’s ridiculously forgiving about missing the occasional payment.”

“Sounds like a nice place to live.”

“It is.” I scratched Lucky between his ears and he licked my cheek. “Dude, you smell like pizza.”

Lucky just licked me again. His attention was pulled away when Bucky sat down on the couch. Lucky honed in on his new target and trotted right up to Bucky and sat down right between his legs. He looked up at him with his good eye and perma-doggie smile and Bucky looked at me like he was asking me what to do. I smiled, shook my head, and sat down beside him. I took Bucky’s right hand and placed it on Lucky’s head. When Lucky leaned into the touch, Bucky gained a little more confidence and stroked Lucky’s neck.

“Weird dog,” Bucky muttered.

“Kind of,” I admitted. “You guys are kind of alike though. Used against your will and all that.”

“What?”

“Clint liberated him from a couple of Russian mobsters who were using him to dog fight.” I shook my head. “Clint went through hell for and with this dog. I’m pretty sure that if it were possible, Lucky would be one of Clint’s soulmates.”

“Wow.”

Lucky cocked his head to the side and whined. Bucky smiled at him and scratched behind his ears. It was the first time I saw him smile.

He decided to stay at Clint’s place while he was in the city. I took trips into town when I could to help him in any way I could. He liked the anonymity of being in a city where no one knew him, but as comfortable as he was, he still felt disconnected from the place he knew was once such a huge part of him. We’d usually loaf around the apartment, but sometimes Bucky would get restless and need to go on a walk (something I’m still convinced had to do with Lucky training him to take him out), and occasionally a tenant would need something fixed and we’d take care of it. All in all, our relationship was mostly about me making sure that Bucky felt he could be safe and be comfortable enough to talk to me about things. He’d open up every once in a while, but his past was never something he was interested in sharing.

One trip though, when I was just about to open the door, Bucky flung it open, eyes wild. I took a step back from him, concerned until I saw the smile on his face.

“What?” I asked.

He pointed to his head and laughed. “Flowers!” he said.

I nearly dropped the coffee I’d brought him when I saw the little white and pink almond blossoms dotted throughout his dark hair. “Holy shit.”

He turned and walked back into the apartment and I followed him. I managed to put the coffee on the counter before Lucky came barrelling towards me. I sat on the floor and gave Lucky some love while Bucky paced in front of me and talked.

“I didn’t think I’d ever, ever have this again. Any kind of sense of, I don’t know… belonging? Connection?” He shook his head and faced me. “But then _you_ show up with all your talking and your fucking _you_-ness and you wormed your way in and now I’ve got these-” He gestured wildly to the blossoms. “And it’s all your fault.”

“It certainly would explain the wolfsbane that showed up after my last visit.”

“You have some too?”

“It’s a two-way street, Buck. I mean,” I bobbed my head from side to side. “Unless you’re _severely_ unlucky, but that doesn’t tend to happen all that often.”

“How do you know so much about soulmates?”

I shrugged. “I did my research.”

“You are so weird.”

I laughed. “I’m glad you think so!”

He plopped down on the floor. “Do you think I could ever get this back?”

“What do you mean?”

“With Steve,” he said softly. “The ones from before. I don’t… I-I can still feel something there.”

“Bucky…” I pressed my lips together. “Do you know what happened to the old blooms?”

“They-_Hydra_ took them from me. Cut them off.” He pulled his knees up to his chest and refused to meet my eyes. “They wanted to cut me off from my past.”

I reached out to him and took his hand. “I’m sure you can get it back. If that’s something that you want to work towards, I’m sure Steve wants that too.”

He smiled sheepishly and squeezed my hand. “Thanks, (Y/N).”

I shook my head. “You don’t have anything to thank me for. You’re my friend, Buck. I’ll always be here for you.”

I stayed there for a couple of hours more that day and Bucky was relatively quiet after his brief outburst. All in all, it was a pleasant visit. But nothing could have prepared me for what was waiting for me when I got back to the compound that evening.

I had just tossed my keys into the dish I kept by my door and was shucking off my jacket when Steve turned on the lamp in the corner of the room. I jumped but did my best to suppress the yelp that had nearly escaped. He was sitting in my reading chair, arms crossed, and glaring at me. I didn’t understand why.

“What the hell are you doing in my room, Steve?”

He squinted at me. “I know where you’ve been going,” he said.

“Okay… and? Clint said he needed a little extra help around the building. I see no reason to not volunteer.”

“You’ve been sneaking away to see Bucky,” he ground out. He hauled himself up from the chair and moved across the room so that he could tower over and glare down at me. I stood my ground.

“So?”

“You had no right to keep this from me,” he hissed. “How _dare_ you go behind my back to meet up with my best friend- my _soulmate_. How _dare_ you!”

“How dare I?” I broke off and laughed. “How _dare_ I? Are you fucking _kidding_ me?! Are you seriously fucking doing this right now?”

“You’re seeing him behind my back. I think I have the right to know what my team is doing, _especially_ when it involves my soulmate.”

“You are so _fucking_ narrow-minded when it comes to him, Steve! What the hell do you think I’m doing with him, huh? You think I’m fucking him behind your back or something? Give me a little credit! If I were dating your best friend, you’d be the _first_ person to know. But no! I’m not doing anything anywhere near as sinister as that!” I pushed him away from me. “I’ve been helping him! I’ve been talking with him while he tries to remember _your_ dumb ass! I’ve been trying to help him get to a place where he feels like he can come visit! To see you! You absolute piece of shit!”

“(Y/N), I-I-” He floundered to find his words and I pushed him again. This time he stumbled back.

“You know I put off finding _my_ best friend, one of _my_ soulmates, so that I could help you find yours?” I threw my jacket at the wall and balled my hands into fists. “I didn’t know he was out of prison until six months ago! Sam was helping me track him down! I was going to go visit him, and then you came back and we went to Bucharest, and I lost track of him. Then Bucky contacted me and wanted to meet. I did it because I wanted to help him, which helps _you_. Do you realize that? Oh! And! And he asked me not to tell you he was in town! And I still haven’t seen Scott! I haven’t seen him since he got _married_, and now he’s divorced and his daughter is _six_! She’s practically my niece, and I’ve never fucking met her! Do you realize how fucking _absurd_ that is?”

I was practically vibrating with rage, and Steve knew better than to try and calm me down. He just stood there and looked just about as ashamed as I wanted him to in that moment. Then, all of a sudden, every ounce of the fight left me. Everything that I’d been holding back and suppressing for years came crashing down around me and I started to cry. I covered my mouth with one hand and wrapped my other arm around my stomach and curled in on myself on the spot. I stood there and cried for nearly five minutes before I felt Steve’s arms circle around me, and my knees gave out right then and there. Steve helped me down to the floor and held me while I cried into his shoulder. He rocked me back and forth and did his best to make soothing sounds.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. He sounded like he was about to cry too. “I should have just asked. I should have known better.”

I sat back on my heels and rubbed my tears away from my eyes. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

Steve shook his head. “No, you should have. You’ve been taking on a lot of our problems, and taking on projects that you had no obligation to. It’s not fair to you to have to bear it all yourself.”

I sighed. “I’m just… I’m tired, Steve. And I don’t want to say it’s the job, because most of the time it’s not. I love what we do, but…”

“You’ve never had a break,” Steve said.

I nodded. “I guess so, yeah.”

“Maybe you should take some time for yourself.”

I laughed. “I’m supposed to be the one telling you to take a vacation, not the other way around.”

“Tell you what,” he said. “You take the time you need for yourself, and I’ll take my turn once you’re back.”

“Do you promise to actually take a vacation?”

He nodded. “I do.”

“Pinky swear on it, Rogers.”

He scowled but held his pinky up all the same. I linked my pinky with his and smiled tentatively.

“I swear that I will take a vacation as soon as you’re back from yours.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that.”

“Are we good?”

I sighed. “We will be. But I think the trust we had for each other has been shaken. It’ll take time to heal that.”

Steve agreed and we decided that we’d take a break from speaking while I took some time off.

Some time turned into two and a half weeks of me doing close to nothing. I visited Kara and her husband. I met her son Mordecai for the first time and he was completely thrilled to find out that his aunt was an Avenger. He was even more excited when I pulled out the toy Iron Man mask that Tony had sent with me as a gift. It kept him occupied for the majority of my visit and I’m certain it entertained him for the rest of the year. (Tony had programmed it with a kid-friendly AI meant to aid in early learning. Kara learned about this later and called Tony to thank him. He started a whole line of kid’s toys after that.) I stayed with them for a few days before visiting my parents for a while. They were happy enough to have me home, but slightly less impressed that I managed to keep my career a secret for so long. They got over it quickly enough when I explained the danger of them knowing. We had a nice visit after that.

I stayed with my parents for five days and then road-tripped back to New York through a combination of rental cars, busses, and trains. I think I read about seven books in that time. It felt a bit like being back in college, but without the massive amounts of stress or homework. In a word, it was nice.

When I got back to the facility upstate, Steve packed his bag, patted me on the shoulder, said his goodbyes, and left for his much-needed vacation. I’m not sure he did much, but he was gone for a week and a half and came back with a pretty bad sunburn across his nose and a grin on his face. After that, we were both in a headspace where we were able to talk out our problems. We hugged, we healed, and we got back to work.

Bucky came up for a visit a month later.

Bucky had texted me to let me know he was coming up and asked me to make sure Steve knew before he showed up. He didn’t want anything about the visit to be a surprise, and I didn’t blame him for it. Even with the warning, Steve was practically vibrating when F.R.I.D.A.Y. notified us of his arrival.

I went out to meet him and lead him back into the main building. We took our time going through and he had me show him the room he’d be staying in for the night before even trying to talk to anyone else. I think it was about half an hour before we made it back to the common room. Steve was still there, sitting on the couch and violently bouncing his leg. Bucky looked at me, his nerves obviously getting the best of him, and I placed a hand on his arm. At this, he calmed a little, and we were able to go sit with Steve.

Steve damn near jumped out of his chair when Bucky sat down across from him. I looked at him, silently asking him what the hell he was doing, and he cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.

“Hey,” he said, a little breathless.

Bucky managed a small smile. “Hey.”

They stared at each other for a minute before I cleared my throat.

“I’m gonna make some tea,” I said. “You guys want anything? Coffee? Water?”

“Coffee sounds good,” Bucky said.

I got up from the couch and waited to see if Steve wanted a drink as well. When he didn’t say anything I rolled my eyes and moved to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee and make a mug of tea. I leaned on the counter and waited for the water to boil. In that time, Steve and Bucky managed to ease their way into a conversation and were talking comfortably. Every once in a while, Bucky would look up at me and I’d smile and give him a thumbs-up, which seemed to encourage him.

When the drinks were ready, I fixed Bucky’s coffee the way he likes and left the rest of the pot for Clint. I placed a cup of water on the table in front of Steve and handed Bucky his coffee as I sat down beside him. He smiled and thanked me, and went back to the conversation.

It wasn’t hard for me to jump in after a few minutes. They weren’t talking about anything too heavy, mostly catching up, talking about what one or the other has been up to since Bucharest. When the topic of me spending time with him came up, Bucky glanced at me for permission. I shrugged and took a sip of tea.

“She’s helped me a lot,” he said. “I wouldn’t have even come here if she hadn’t been working with me.”

I smiled and rolled my eyes. “You would’ve gotten here eventually. You just needed a little encouragement.”

“When you say she’s been helping you, what do you mean?” Steve asked.

Bucky shrugged. “I dunno, just being there, I guess. She’s never forced me to talk. Mostly just treated me like a normal person. She’s the first friend I made since I got my own head back.”

Steve’s eyes flicked up to the little almond blossoms in Bucky’s crown and the corner of his mouth curved up into a smile. “I can see that.”

Bucky blushed. “I didn’t think I’d ever have that kind of connection again. I got lucky.”

“So did I,” Steve admitted. He pointed out the clusters of white snapdragons. “She has a way of getting under your skin.”

“And she never goes away,” Bucky adds.

Steve laughs. “That’s true. It’s a damn good thing she’s here, though. Pretty sure we would’ve fallen apart without her.”

“I’m glad you can cop to that, Steve,” I said.

“How long have you known each other?” Bucky asked.

Steve shrugged. “Do you know?”

I shook my head. “I think four, maybe five years? Everything kind of blurs together after a while. It’s definitely not more than six.”

“You’re probably right.” Steve shook his head. “Has it really been that long?”

“I think it’s been almost two years since you tried to commit suicide by helicarrier. You mark time passing by the events that threaten your life, right?”

“Oh, haha, very funny, (Y/N),” Steve rolled his eyes and Bucky smiled. “More things have happened in my life than me almost dying.”

Bucky shook his head, a small smile still firmly in place. “Not many that I can remember.”

Steve’s breath hitched and he stared straight at Bucky. “You remember?”

“Yeah. (Y/N)’s been doing what she can to help. I uh…” He trailed off, biting his lip. “I remember a lot of things.”

Steve looked to me for confirmation. I nodded. Steve was too scared to ask the question he desperately wanted to know the answer to and Bucky was scared to give him the answer. I placed a gentle hand on Bucky’s arm, silently telling him to keep going.

“I-I remember when we were young,” Bucky began, speaking slowly, making sure he wouldn’t trip over his words. “Before the war and… and _during_ the war. The daisies from when we were kids. The roses. The connection that we had. We didn’t really talk about it then. Didn’t exactly have the time.”

Steve shook his head. “Not really, no. It wasn’t exactly safe back then either. I think we just kind of, I don’t know… silently acknowledged it and went on with the war. But we can talk now, if you want.”

Bucky pressed his lips together as he processed that information. I don’t think he had really expected to get that far. For Steve to have offered him the very thing he wanted had to have sent him into overdrive.

“You sure?” Bucky asked.

“You’re my best friend, Buck,” Steve said. “My… my-”

“Soulmate,” Bucky offered.

Steve smiled. “Yeah. Twice over, even. Any relationship you’re willing to have with me, I’m all in.”

It was then that I excused myself, as I felt that it was important that they have that conversation in private. I caught Sam lurking in the hallway on my way out and stopped to talk with him.

“You did a good thing here, (Y/N),” he said.

I looked back at Steve and Bucky on the couch and smiled.

“I’ll do anything to help my friends,” I said. “Simple as that.”

He smiled and pulled me into a tight hug. “I know.”

Bucky decided to stay at the facility upstate for a while. Having him a little closer to home was nice, and seeing him comfortable there made me even happier. Even better than that was how calm Steve finally seemed to be. It was clear that whatever they had talked about on that first day had been exactly what he needed. The two of them tiptoed around each other for a week or so before finally falling into a rhythm of careful banter and gentle touches. Watching the two of them together was interesting, to say the least. I think I’d only seen about three perfect soulmates up until that point in my life, and hadn’t spent nearly as much time around them as I was able to Steve and Bucky. In the beginning, they sort of danced around each other, but then they truly began to work together. Even if they didn’t realize it, neither was ever out of step, on their toes, or in the way. It was like a perfectly choreographed dance. It was the first time I felt jealous of someone who had found their perfect soulmate. The feeling was easy enough to shove aside, especially when I walked in on them sitting on Steve’s bed, full out belly laughing about something they did as kids. They had waited too long for this. They deserved each other. I was happy for them.

Bucky became a regular at the facility. After nearly a month of him visiting, Steve convinced him to just move in. He agreed, albeit hesitantly, and became a permanent fixture in everyone’s lives. He didn’t participate in any missions at first, but he did train with us. He’d go on morning runs with Sam, Steve, and I. Steve and Bucky usually left Sam and I behind after about three laps, which was two laps before Sam and I gave up. There’s never been any point in trying to keep up with either of them, and we’d quit trying long before Bucky moved in.

After about two months, Bucky started working with us. He preferred light-duty and generally only got seriously involved when the mission called for a sniper. Other than that, he and I would work together on surveillance. The work was good. Easier, even, with someone else there to keep me company. An extra set of eyes didn’t hurt either.

We fell into a rhythm easily, and it felt almost like he’d been with us from the beginning.

Still, things felt off. Like something was missing.

Around five months after Bucky joined the team, that piece clicked into place.

On a mission the week prior, one of the quinjets was damaged. One engine had been completely compromised and we’d lost half of the opposite wing. I was stuck cataloging the damage and had to inspect every single component of the jet. I examined the smallest bits on the inside first and left the best part for last: crawling around on top of the jet. The initial inspection of the components took almost three hours, even with F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s help. I had her double-check the collected data while I moved on to check on the exterior of the jet.

About half an hour in, Sam, and Steve waltzed in. I didn’t bother looking up. They regularly did routine jet inspections, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them to be there.

“Hey, (Y/N),” Sam called. “We got a surprise for you!”

“Can it wait?” I asked, fully engrossed in the damage to the propeller. Three of the blades were completely gone without any evidence of them actually being ripped away. “I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

“Not really,” Steve answered.

Confused, I looked up from the engine. Between Sam and Steve stood Scott. He smiled sheepishly and waved.

“Holy shit.” I dropped down to the concrete without any regard for my ankles and ran to meet them.

Scott spread his arms and braced for impact. I threw my arms around his neck and he spun me around. I pressed my nose to his shoulder and laughed when I felt myself start to tear up. I sniffled when we parted and ran the back of my hand under my nose. I didn’t feel too bad because Scott seemed to be in much the same state as I was. We burst out laughing and I pulled him into another tight hug and just held him close. I couldn’t believe he was actually there.

“Holy shit,” I said.

“You already said that,” Scott said.

“I know that, but…” I shook my head. “How are you here?”

“We thought you’d waited long enough,” Sam said. “I went and tracked him down for you.”

“Seriously?” I looked around at the three of them. Steve and Scott just nodded. I laughed and gripped Scott’s biceps, only to stare at him, shocked. “You got buff!”

“Whaddaya mean _I_ got buff?” Scott said. “If either of us got buff, it’s _you._ You could practically rip me in half!”

“It comes with the job, Scotty.” I took a moment to correct myself. “It comes with the job, so long as you have to keep up with these two.” I jerked my thumb at Sam and Steve, and Scott chuckled.

“You look good, (Y/N),” Scott said.

“So do you.” I punched him in the arm. “How could you not tell me you became a superhero? I thought I was your best friend!”

He rubbed his arm. “You are! I just… I _couldn’t_. Not with Hope and Hank breathing down my neck like they’ve been doing since day one.”

“It’s been over a year.” I scowled. “You didn’t even tell me you were out of prison.”

“I know. And that was completely my fault. I wasn’t thinking. I just-” Scott pressed his lips together and looked at Steve. “Is there anywhere else we could talk?”

I grabbed his hand and lead him towards the elevator. “We’ll go to my room. You two can finish cataloging the damage to that quinjet!”

“What?!” Sam sounded outraged.

“I’ve waited a year to talk to this dumbass,” I called back. “The least you could do is finish a little paperwork for me, considering the shit I’ve done for you.”

"But-”

“Remember that thing you didn’t want getting out?” Sam’s mouth snapped closed and I tapped the tip of my nose. “Yeah. I remember everything, Sammy. You’d be wise to keep that in mind.”

Sam waved me off and left a very confused Steve to stare after us while he got to work.

I lead Scott back into the compound and into my room. I gestured to the bed and we sat down to talk.

“I’m sorry I never got in contact with you,” Scott said. “I’ll be very honest, I’m not sure I would have known how to contact you, considering all of this.” He gestured vaguely at the room, specifically meaning the compound. The Avengers.

I nodded. “I understand. You probably wanted to see Cassie, too.”

“I did, yeah.” He smiled. “She’s six now. Can you believe that?”

“I know, it’s crazy.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “I wish I could meet her. This job… it doesn’t really allow room for personal time. I just met Kara’s son six months back.” I shook my head and wiped away the beginnings of a tear. “He’s not that much younger than Cassie. I’ve missed so much.”

He reached out and took my hand. “Not too much. I can promise you that. Cassie’ll _love_ you.”

I leaned over and rested my forehead on his shoulder. “I appreciate that.”

“How’d you know I was a superhero?” He asked. “Not that I’d really call myself a _superhero_, but I’m also not saying that I’m _opposed_ to it.”

“I was on monitor duty that day you showed up here. I saw the whole thing happen.” I snorted. “You handed Sam’s ass to him on a platter.”

“I got lucky.”

“Maybe. But you went toe to toe with an Avenger and didn’t die. I’d say that’s a pretty big accomplishment.”

“Why thank you!” he said, puffing out his chest. “Is that the thing Sam doesn’t want getting out?”

“Yeah. He was kind of embarrassed.”

“Oh. I get it.” He sighed. “It looks like your flower crown has filled out nicely.”

“Huh? Oh,” I finger the shape of one poppy. “Yeah, I guess so. A lot has changed since I last saw you. Not really sure if there’s a good place to start.”

He shook his head. “What if we just go back and forth? Y’know, ask questions. The most important ones.”

I nodded. “Alright. You go first.”

“How did you become an Avenger?”

“I was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent first.”

“No way,” he gasped and his eyes went wide. “What was that like?”

“Well, after a while you fall into a routine, work can kind of seem mundane. But I can’t say there was ever a dull moment working with Clint and Natasha.”

“Holy shit, you’re the real deal.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I am.”

“Wait, does this mean I had a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent at my wedding?”

“Yup.”

“Wow,” he laughs. “So, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent first, then what?”

“Strike team member, then ex-S.H.I.E.L.D., then Avenger after Sokovia. Then you showed up on the compound not too long after that.”

“And the Avengers know I’m,” he gestures vaguely. “Y’know.”

“Yeah, they know you went to prison.”

“Dang.”

“Don’t worry about it. Your heart was in the right place. No one important thinks you really did anything wrong.”

“Not even Iron Man?”

I snort. “Especially him. He actually applauded when I told him what you did. Tony believes in fair compensation and equal opportunity employment. He’s not gonna screw anyone in his company over.”

“Wow.”

“Bet you wish you’d applied at Stark Industries instead of that shithole you used to work at, huh?”

“Yeah, actually, I do.”

“There’s still time if you want a second shot at a career.”

He shook his head. “Nah, I think I’m past that now. The whole Ant Man thing has kind of taken over my life.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s actually been kind of great, to be honest.”

“What’s it like?”

He shrugged. “Kind of like being back in high school. I mostly get bossed around.”

“No, I mean shrinking. What’s that like?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Kind of disorienting, I guess. It gets easier every time I do it, though. Almost like it’s second nature at this point, not that Hank would say that, but he’s the one who invented the suit, so I’m not all that surprised that he wouldn’t be impressed.”

“Take a breath there, Scott,” I laughed. “We’ve got more than enough time to talk.”

“I know,” he said. “It just feels like there’s so much to say. We’ve covered the fact that you’re a professional badass, I’m a borderline superhero, and my daughter is amazing. But that’s about it.”

“Just ask me what you want to know then, Scott. You know I won’t hide anything from you.”

He nodded resolutely. “How are you?” he asked. “Not superficially. I genuinely want to know. So much has happened since I last saw you and I feel like it’s all been behind the scenes, even when half of it’s been on television.”

“Okay.” I smiled. “Well, if I’m being honest, I’m exhausted. I’ve been pretty much running around the world since I got out of the academy, and now it’s twice as hard because my team has superpowers and the enemy just seems to rise to meet that challenge. And then I took on finding Bucky, and that’s taken up the majority of my time. Everything’s just been really emotionally exhausting.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Yeah.” I shook my head. “You know how well I deal with emotional stress.”

“Yeah, I really do. I seem to remember a lot of long nights in college talking about things that we had no business worrying about.’

"I know. I guess I haven’t really moved past that, have I?”

“You don’t need to move past it. Your weird depth is something that I’ve always admired about you.”

“Aw,” I pressed one hand to my chest. “It’s so nice of you to lie to me like that. Even after all of the millions of existential crises I put you through.”

He laughed. “I wouldn’t be the man I am today without them.”

“How are you though, Scott? How are things?”

“Well, I became a super thief for a hot minute and saved California, possibly the country, from a homicidal maniac, so that was cool.” His brows pulled together as he thought. “My ex is with a cop now, but we’re learning to get along for Cassie’s sake. I think he secretly likes me, though, so I’m not worrying about it at this point. Cassie’s been thinking about doing gymnastics for a little bit, which I think could be great for her. Maybe I can convince Maggie to enroll her in some martial arts or something once school’s out, I don’t know.”

“How’s the Ant Man thing going?”

“Pretty good. Hank’s working on a suit for his daughter on the side. I’m not supposed to know about it, but… y’know. Sometimes I actually do find things.”

“Well, yeah, you’re brilliant. Kind of dumb sometimes, but you’re not completely oblivious.”

“Thanks, (Y/N), you’re so kind.”

“Only the best for my soulmate.”

He snorted, rolled his eyes, and steered us back to the original topic. “But, yeah. We’ve been working on upgrading the suit and trying to grow instead of shrink. We’re making good progress too. The only drawback right now is the strain it puts on my body. Can’t be big for too long or my cells start doing some weird shit.”

“Bruce and Tony would probably be fascinated by that.”

“Hah, yeah, they probably would. I doubt Hank would let Stark within twenty miles of his suit.”

“Why’s that?”

“He still holds a grudge against Howard Stark. I guess he tried to get his hands on the Pym Particles at one point and it went over like rotten fish at dinner.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Yeah, something like a forty-year-old grudge, I guess.”

I shook my head. “Weird.”

“Yeah.”

“How long are you here for?”

“Till the end of the week, I think. The Captain didn’t really give me a deadline, but I don’t think I should be away from California for too long.”

“I get it.” I sighed and forced myself to smile. “We’ll make the most of our time now, and figure out the rest as it comes.”

“Sounds good.”

We stayed up the rest of that night talking until we fell asleep on each other and then didn’t wake up till two in the afternoon the next day. I couldn’t stop my work at the compound just because Scott was there, but he managed to worm his way into the hearts of the rest of the team. He somehow wound up working with Tony and Bruce in the lab on the third day of his visit and I nearly had to drag him out when it was time for dinner. The fact that he was having fun, though, made me ridiculously happy. Even more than that, knowing that he fit in with the team started me down a path of hoping that he might join the team, or help us bridge the gap between coasts at the very least.

Our time together came to a close that next Monday when Scott got a call from Hope to come back. I did my best to put on a brave face while we were saying goodbye, but then Steve suggested that we fly him back to California instead of sending him back on a commercial flight. I immediately jumped at the chance to go with him.

“I didn’t realize you could fly a plane,” Scott said.

I shrugged. “There’s still a lot you don’t know about me.”

Scott looked to Steve for reassurance, and Steve just nodded. “She’s proficient.”

Scott laughs. “Okay then. I guess we’re going back together.”

Scott and I flew out that afternoon and were in California before the sun set that night. Scott called Hank Pym as soon as we landed and then Maggie immediately after. We commandeered one of Tony’s more conservative cars and I took him to check in with Hank and Hope before heading to Maggie’s house for dinner. As soon as we pulled up to Pym’s house, I realized it was probably a mistake for me to show up with him. There was an argument brewing inside the house and I would have offered to stay in the car, had Scott not already looked exhausted by the idea of even going up the steps to the front door. I grabbed his hand and smiled at him.

“We should probably break up whatever’s about to blow up in there, right?” I asked.

He sighed. “Yeah, probably.”

We got out of the car and I’d barely knocked twice before a woman about the same age as Scott and I answered the door. She looked at Scott and then immediately looked me over. She nodded once and gestured for us to come inside.

“You must be (Y/N),” she said.

“And you must be Hope.”

“How would you know that?”

“I listen when my best friend talks to me,” I answered. Scott snorted beside me but managed to turn it into a cough at the last second.

“Why in the world would you bring an Avenger into my _home_, Scott?!” a new voice demanded. A haggard-looking older gentleman sat at the table in the dining room, glaring at me over a cup of tea.

I carefully approached him and offered my hand. “Dr. Pym, my name is (Y/N) (Y/L/N). I’ve heard a lot about you and your work from Scott.”

He squints at me but shakes my hand nonetheless. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“Hank-” Scott started, and I held a hand up to stop him.

“Scott and I have known each other since college and I hadn’t seen him since before he went to prison. My teammates decided to surprise me, and probably _terrify_ Scott, and bring him out to the compound for a visit. You needed him back here in a hurry, and I was available to fly him out. I’m not here to steal your secrets, or whatever the hell it is you’re scared of. I just wanted to meet the people Scott’s been telling me about the past few days.”

“And just what do you know about us?”

I laughed. “Look, I was at the compound when you tried to pull your little heist. I’m the reason no one went after you. I know you prevented some maniac from setting the Pym Particles on the rest of the world, and that you still hold a pretty solid grudge against the Stark family. I’m not here to judge. I’m just curious.”

“(Y/N),” Scott warned me with a hand on my shoulder. I pressed onward, regardless.

“Though I will say, it’d probably be beneficial to reach out to Tony one of these days. He wouldn’t try to take your tech. He’s not his father. He’s got plenty of his own toys to play with. But I’m sure he wouldn’t mind lending you lab space, considering you lost your entire facility in that ‘freak accident’ last year.”

Hank turned to Scott. “She’s your soulmate?”

“Yessir, she is,” Scott answered.

Hank laughed. “Ms. (Y/L/N), I’m sorry you got saddled with Scott.”

My brows pulled together. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that about Scott. You got damn lucky with him.”

Hope nodded and folded her arms across her chest. “We’ve been hard on him, dad. But he’s always followed through and done what we’ve asked of him.”

“Holy shit, she agreed with me,” I said. “Can’t say I was expecting that.”

“Well, you’re right,” Hope said simply.

“Well alright then.” I turned back to Scott. “What time did Maggie say dinner was?”

“Uh, six, I think.”

“Okay,” I looked to Hope and Hank and nodded to both of them. “Lovely meeting you, but we’ve got other plans.”

“Wh-”

I cut Hope off. “I’ve never met Scott’s daughter. That’s six years of not knowing my niece. So, unless we need permission?”

Hope blinked rapidly and shook her head. “No, by all means.”

“Thanks. I’ll meet you out in the car, Scott.”

I left the house and sat in the car. The way that Hank talked about Scott really set my blood boiling, and I hadn’t realized how much it had affected me until I was alone in the car. The sound of my heart pounding filled my ears and I did my best to calm myself before Scott came out. I put my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. Scott got into the car a few minutes later.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

I nodded. “I was a little out of line in there.”

“Nah, I don’t think you were. They’re pretty focused on themselves a lot of the time.”

I laughed and looked over at him. “That’s pretty obvious.”

He reached over and took my hand. “Thanks for standing up for me.”

“You deserve to be treated better than that,” I said simply. “Anyone who doesn’t understand that clearly doesn’t realize who they’re working with.”

“I don’t know about that, but still. Thank you.” He sighed and faced forward. “We should probably get going. I think Cassie heard you were coming over when I called.”

I perked up at that. “You’re right.”

“Come on,” He squeezed my hand and let go so he could buckle his seat belt. “I don’t think Maggie’s seen you since the wedding.”

The drive to Maggie’s house was quick and Cassie met us out on the front steps. She ran out and Scott caught her as she threw her arms around his neck. Scott told her how much he missed her and peppered her face with kisses while she giggled. Her eyes latched onto me when Scott put her down and she gasped and hid behind her father.

“Is that her?” she asked.

“That depends,” I said. “Who do you think I am?”

“You’re aunt (Y/N),” she said.

I leaned back against the car. “I am.”

She grinned and immediately hurtled towards me. I bent my knees and prepared for impact. I gripped under her arms so that I could pick her up and situate her on my hip. She cupped my face in her hands and turned it from side to side, examining me. She stared very intently into my eyes and then nodded.

“My dad said you’re an Avenger,” she said. “Is that true?”

“Yup. One hundred percent.”

“Cool!” She wriggled free and dropped down onto the driveway. “You wanna see me do a cartwheel?”

“Absolutely, sweetheart.”

She cheered and grabbed my hand to drag me through the house. We passed Maggie on the way in and I managed to wave to her before stumbling along behind Cassie to the back yard. She had me sit down on the deck and made sure that I was watching before doing her cartwheel. She landed steadily on both feet with a flourish and I clapped for her.

“Didja see that?”

“Perfect form, Cassie!”

“Really?” She bounced up to me and put her hands on my shoulders.

“Yes, really. You didn’t wobble and you kept your legs straight. You keep that up, you could be headed to the Olympics.”

Her eyes went comically wide. “Wow.”

“Do you know any other moves?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, not yet.”

“Do you want me to teach you something?”

“Would you?” She jumped up and down when her excitement got the better of her. “Can you teach me how to do a handstand?”

“Only if it’s okay with your mom.”

“It’s fine with me.” Maggie had been leaning in the doorway, watching Cassie show off. “But it’ll have to wait till after dinner.”

Cassie whined, but I convinced her to go inside and wash up. She perked up easily enough and ran back into the house.

"She warmed up to you pretty quickly,” Maggie noted.

I shrugged. “Kids tend to like Avengers. Perk of the job.”

“Maybe.”

“Probably doesn’t help that Scott’s told her about me.” I hauled myself up and dusted off the seat of my pants. “That kind of stuff tends to raise someone’s expectations.”

She snorted. “If anything, you surpassed all of ours. I can’t really say that I expected you to become a secret agent, let alone a _superhero_.”

“It is pretty cool, isn’t it?”

Maggie laughed. “Yeah, it is.”

I stood off to the side and watched Cassie help Paxton set the table. Scott and I set out the dishes for dinner and the five of us sat down to eat. Cassie was buzzing with questions and I was more than happy to answer them. They were mostly about the Avengers and what it was like to be on the team. Paxton and Maggie had questions as well, though they were more interested in what everyone was like. Scott very proudly told them about working with Tony and Bruce, and Paxton was thoroughly impressed. Cassie moved on quickly and started asking questions about her dad and I answered every single one of them, much to Scott’s embarrassment. Pretty soon, it was Maggie’s turn to embarrass him.

“So, Scott. How’s that thing with Hope?” she asked.

Scott choked on his mashed potatoes and I rubbed his back while he coughed and spluttered. When he’d caught his breath, he just stared at Maggie.

“Yeah, Scott, what about that thing with Hope?” I asked.

He shook his head and wiped his mouth on his napkin. “There is no _thing_ between Hope and I. We kissed once, then it was over.”

“Is this your first time hearing about it, (Y/N)?” Maggie asked.

“Yeah, it is,” I said. “But I can see why you’d like her. She’s kind of hot.”

Scott rolled his eyes. “Of course _you’d_ say that. And can we not do this in front of my daughter?”

“I dunno, Scott, she seems to think it’s pretty funny,” Paxton pointed to Cassie, who just smiled back.

Scott let his head fall against the table with a thud and the rest of us laughed.

“So,” Maggie refocused the conversation. “How long are you in town, (Y/N)?”

“I don’t have to be back for a few days, so I can probably stick around till Wednesday. Why do you ask?”

She shrugged and shook her head. “No reason.”

We went through the rest of dinner without incident. It was around nine that Scott and I said goodbye to Cassie, Maggie, and Paxton. Cassie would only let me go if I promised to come back the next day and teach her to do a handstand. I, of course, said yes, and Maggie was finally able to convince her to get ready for bed. Maggie hugged Scott and I, and Paxton gave Scott an awkward hug and shook my hand.

The drive back to Scott’s place was quiet. His roommates didn’t make much noise when we showed up, though Luis did spend about fifteen minutes recounting everything he’d heard about me, and it didn’t matter where he got the information. He just threw it back at us in the most roundabout way that seemed possible. The whole interaction left me giggling. Scott grumbled something about needing to find a new place when he shut us in his room and I laughed.

“They seem nice, Scott.”

He allowed himself to fall into the bed and groaned. “They are, but I have to find a new place if I ever want Cassie to be able to stay over. Somehow I don’t think the courts would be all that wild about her staying in an apartment with a bunch of thieves.”

“Eh, it’ll be fine. Maggie’s allowing you visitations. If nothing else, you have an Avenger who can vouch for you.” He grunted and I propped myself up against the headboard. “She’s a good kid, Scott. You and Maggie made a good one.”

“I really haven’t done much.”

“You’ve shown her that people can do stupid things and learn from them and get better. You’ve shown her what it means to grow as a human being. To be kind and happy when everything is against you. She got your eternal, glowing optimism. You’re her hero, man. Give yourself a little credit.”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

I said, “I know you really well. Things’ll be fine.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am. I promise.”

He lifted his head from the mattress to look at me. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Can we go to sleep though?” He laughed and pushed himself up to get ready for bed. “It’s been an emotionally exhausting day. I need a quality eight hours if I have to deal with your insane life again tomorrow.”

He threw my bag into my lap and we got ready for bed. The next day was more of the same, though things were less tense at the Pym house and Cassie had less explosively excited energy. Scott was allowed to hang around while I taught Cassie to do a handstand. She picked up on it pretty quickly and immediately asked me to teach her something else. We worked on a backflip for a bit before Scott and I got anxious over her falling and we switched to stretching and flexibility. I talked Scott into doing it with us and we would up laughing more than getting any actual work done.

When it came time for me to go back to New York, Maggie insisted that Scott and I come over for breakfast. Cassie sat next to me and chattered away about the first gymnastics class she had gone to the day before. The whole family joined me at the car when it was time for me to drive back to the quinjet. Paxton gave me an emotional handshake (meaning he did his best to keep a straight face and succeeded in only looking mildly upset.) Maggie and Scott hugged me, and Cassie refused to let go when it was her turn. It broke my heart to leave her, but I had to go back to my day job.

“I don’t want you to leave,” she whined.

“I gotta go back to saving the world, sweetheart.” I pulled away and tried to smile. “I’ll visit, though. I promise.”

“I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, kiddo.” I had kept the gift Tony had sent with me till the very end. I took her hand and placed it in her palm. “If you ever want to talk to me, you just tell this little disk, and it’ll call me, okay?”

“What is that?” Maggie asked.

“It’s a modified Stark Phone. The calling capabilities are limited to Scott and I for the time being. I can help you add in other numbers later, if you want. There’s also a kid-friendly A.I. that Tony’s been tinkering with for the line of toys he’s been working on.”

Cassie immediately perked up. “That’s cool!”

“It sure is. And you can name your A.I. whatever you want.”

“Thank you!” She threw her arms around my neck again and hugged me briefly before running off to go play with it.

“Thank you, (Y/N),” Maggie said. “For everything.”

“You don’t have to thank me for anything, Maggie. I should’ve visited sooner.” I smiled at all of them. “Call me if you need anything, okay? I promise I’ll call back if I miss you.”

Scott hugged me one more time before he allowed me to climb into the car. My phone rang as I drove away and Cassie was on the other end of the call. I talked to her for an hour of the flight back to the compound.

Things went back to normal after that. The routine resumed and everything was fine. About a month after I got back, Tony walked into my office, perplexed.

“You look concerned,” I said.

“I just had the Strangest phone call,” he said.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, Hank Pym called me.” Tony shook his head. “Said something about wanting to make amends or something, I don’t know. He worked with my father.”

“Yeah, had a falling out when they were both working with S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Tony’s eyes widened. “Scott’s working with him now. I may or may not have told him to reach out. Let go of whatever grudge he’s got against your dad.”

Tony laughed. “That explains a lot.”

“How?”

“You always seem to figure out how to solve everyone’s problems around here. We struck a deal. He’s coming out here in a week to look at the compound. The Avengers might be forming a partnership with the new Pym Laboratories.”

“Holy shit, really?” I laughed and leaned back in my chair. “What’s that mean for the team?”

Tony shrugged. “We might have a new team member.”

“Oh?” I pressed my lips together and hoped that I wasn’t being too obvious. “Who would that be? Hope?”

“You think he’s gonna send his daughter _here_ to work with us?” Tony scoffed. “I have every confidence that you and your little friend will be reunited again in no time.”

“Why would you think I want that?” I asked. I folded my arms across my chest. “Maybe I had enough time with him to last another six years in that week we spent together.”

“You say that like I haven’t seen you sulking around since you got back from California.” I opened my mouth and he talked over me. “If you say that it’s because you miss the weather, I preemptively call bullshit. You hate California. You put up with it because of Scott and his little girl.”

I pouted. “You don’t know everything, Tony.”

“But I know how much you care about them. Him especially.” He shook his head. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be around the people you love, (Y/N). You, more than anyone, deserve to have someone here outside of the team that you can call family. You’ve been stuck with us for too long.”

“But I love you guys,” I insisted. “You have to believe me, Tony. I really do.”

“Of course I believe you, sweetheart,” he said. He pulled up a chair and sat in front of me so that he could take my hands. “But you need more than us, and that’s not a problem.”

I took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “I understand. I just don’t want you, or the rest of the team to think that I’m pulling away or anything. You’re my family and I need you guys. I always will.”

“And we need you, obviously,” he said.

I laughed. “Obviously.”

He kissed my knuckles and got up from his chair. “I expect you to be on that tour with us next week. I might need backup if Pym hated my dad as much as you say he did.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there. Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Thank you.” He kissed my forehead. “Let me know when that report is finished, Steve’s been bugging me about it all day.”

“You didn’t tell him I have it?”

“Like he’d believe me,” he rolled his eyes. “Just send me the file, okay?”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay, I’ll send the file.”

Tony thanked me and left me alone to work. I finished the report that day and the little tiff between Steve and Tony was settled soon after. I completely buried myself in work the rest of the week to make time go faster. It didn’t work well, though, and I trudged through the days that lead up to the tour with Scott and Hank.

Tony and I were waiting for them when they arrived. Hank shook hands with both of us and Tony did the same with Scott. I, however, hugged Scott when it was my turn, though I kept it short and professional. Both Tony and Hank bit back their laughter and I rolled my eyes. It took some convincing, but I managed to get them to start the tour instead of poking fun at me.

The tour was relatively painless. Scott and I trailed along behind Hank and Tony while Tony rambled on about the labs and the kind of work that he was hoping to accomplish with some of the new scientists and engineers he was bringing on in a few months. He explained the goal of the Avengers and his hopes for a partnership between Pym labs and himself. Hank seemed surprised, but pleased nonetheless, much to the relief of Scott and I. Nothing came to blows, and the four of us had a nice lunch that day. Tony refrained from poking fun at me and only smiled when I rested my head on Scott’s shoulder.

Scott and I sat outside of the conference room while Tony and Hank discussed the possibility of a partnership. Things had been going well up until that point, so I didn’t see any reason for me to sit in on the meeting, considering the majority of what they’d be talking about would have just gone right over my head. Scott was on edge the majority of the meeting, but it seemed like he was on edge whenever it came to the Pym family, regardless of what was happening.

Occasionally Hank would try to intimidate Tony, but he’d just lean back in his chair and look on with the kind of serene smile someone only learns when they’ve sat in on board meetings most of their life. To this day, I still think that seeing Tony slip into business mode is one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen.

About ten minutes before Tony and Hank came to an agreement, I nudged Scott with my shoulder.

“Looks like you might be an Avenger soon,” I said.

“What?” He snorted and shook his head. “Nah. Not me. I’m not that guy.”

“What? Scott, of course you are.”

“I’m not like you, (Y/N).”

“You think I started out right where I am? You saw what I was like in college. It’s taken years to get here, and I’m still constantly training and learning every single day. Being an Avenger doesn’t mean being perfect. It’s about trying to be better and do better for everyone around you. If that isn’t what you’ve been working towards, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Come on…”

“Just don’t rule it out before you’re even offered a position, okay?”

He gave in and we sat in silence for the rest of the meeting. Scott stood up as soon as Tony and Hank walked towards the door. He looked between the two of them and Tony looked past him to smile at me.

“Looks like Mr. Lang will be packing his bags,” Tony said.

“What?” asked Scott.

“Mr. Stark and I have come to the agreement that more good can come of our combined talents than harm. You’ll be working here as a liaison.”

“I told you,” I said.

Tony held his hand out to Scott. “Welcome to the Avengers.”

Scott shook his hand. “Is this for real?”

“Of course it’s ‘for real’, you ninny,” Hank said. “I don’t give up good employees to just anyone.”

“Did he just call me a good employee?”

“I think you might break him if you keep complimenting him like that, Dr. Pym,” I said.

“We should thank you, (Y/N),” Hank said. “You’re the reason we were able to make this deal.”

I shook my head and pushed myself up off the bench. “All I did was make a suggestion. You decided to put the past behind you.”

“Even so,” he offered his hand and looked me directly in the eye. “Thank you.”

I smiled and shook his hand. “And thank _you_ for lending Scott to us.”

The rest of their stay was peaceful and it was easier to say goodbye to Scott knowing he’d be back before the end of the week.

Scott returned, he moved in, went through orientation like every new hire, and quickly took to working with the team. He was excited to head into the lab in the morning, ready for work each and every day, and the team was quick to accept him as one of their own. He started daily training with Tony and I about two weeks after he moved in. He and Tony were about on the same skill level at that point and so they were perfect sparring partners. After about three months, Sam decided to join in to prove that Scott kicking his ass was a one-time thing (spoiler alert, it definitely was not. Scott laid him out at least three more times before Sam stopped underestimating him.)

The third time Scott took Sam down, I squatted down next to him on the mat and grinned at him.

“When are you going to admit that Scott’s kind of a badass?” I asked. “That first time wasn’t just a fluke.”

“He’s just good ‘cause you been working with him,” Sam said. “_You’re_ the badass, he’s just the student.”

Tony joined the conversation and said, “Look, Wilson, I’ve been training with (Y/N) for probably two years now and I couldn’t kick your ass if I tried. Throw in the towel man. Scott’s got grit." 

Sam threw his hands in the air. “Fine! Scott can hold his own. Happy?”

I laughed and offered him a hand up. “Sure, flyboy, that’ll be fine for now.”

I hauled Sam to his feet and clapped him on the back. Scott offered his hand and said, “If it’s any consolation, you’re a worthy adversary.”

“No one says that, Scott.”

“They used to!”

“Yeah, two hundred years ago!”

Sam laughed. “You guys are total nerds.”

“What, you were expecting something different?” Scott asked.

“Honestly? Not really.”

I clapped my hands to refocus their attention. "Great, so now that that’s settled, can we get back to the training session? I still have paperwork.”

Sam stopped complaining, and we got back to training as normal.

As Scott became closer to the team, so did Cassie. She frequently called Scott and I, and managed to charm the rest of the Avengers just as easily as she had me. It got to the point that Steve agreed to allow us to be her show and tell one month. The issue with that lay in the fact that we forgot and wound up on a mission on the day that we were supposed to be expecting a call. We managed to pull it together by connecting all of our comms to the call, even if we had to have F.R.I.D.A.Y. censor some of what we said (to be fair, we were under heavy fire. No one can expect our language to be clean one hundred percent of the time.)

Tony started up a weekly movie night when things started to slow down a little. Everyone would pile onto the couches and watch movies until we couldn’t keep our eyes open. I mostly wound up with my head on Scott’s shoulder and my legs across Bucky and Steve’s laps. There was one night when Scott pulled me back against his chest, arms wrapped around my shoulders, and rested his chin on the top of my head. I was comfortable, so I let myself relax against him. At one point, Bucky shot me a look that said, "You’re adorable.” while looking very pointedly between Scott and I. I smacked his chest with my foot and snuggled back into Scott, and that was the end of it.

Or I thought it was, at least.

Bucky caught up with me on my way to our file room after training about a week later.

“What’s with you and Lang?” Bucky asked.

I scowled at him. “Nothing. I don’t get why you’re asking me.”

“I’ve seen you two together! It’s like you were made to be around each other.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve seen the way that you and Steve move when you’re together. Like you’re two halves of the same whole. That is not Scott and I.”

“Do you really think everyone’s gonna be the same around their perfect soulmate? Stevie and I work like we do because of how we were as kids. We looked out for each other, always had each other’s backs.”

“I still don’t believe you.”

“Look, (Y/N), the way that the two of you fit together… it shows in the way that you know what he’s thinking before he even opens his mouth. The way that he knows when you need someone to hold you and comfort you. The way the two of you talk, shoulder to shoulder, close enough to be one person, and giggle for hours on end.”

“Then why don’t I have a new bloom?”

“It’s not the right time yet.”

“Thanks, that’s really helpful,” I said. I rolled my eyes and pushed past him into the room.

He stood beside me while I put the files away and continued trying to convince me.

“You seriously don’t feel anything for him?”

“I feel exactly the same way I have since I met him. I adore that idiot. He’s my best friend. I would do anything for him. He’s one of my soulmates. But, Bucky…” I shook my head. “I don’t think he’s my perfect half.”

“You just haven’t thought about it.”

“No, but you sure seem to have.”

“(Y/N)…”

“Speaking of, how are things with Steve? It looks like your roses have started to grow back.”

I smirked when his neck started to flush. He pushed his hair back from his face and shook his head.

“Things are fine. Moving at a perfectly normal pace. They’re completely normal.”

“Mhm, that’s definitely not a lie.” He scowled and I laughed. “Come on, man, spill it. What’s got you so flustered?”

“He kissed me,” Bucky blurted out.

“What?”

“Steve kissed me,” he repeated.

“Holy shit,” I reached out and gripped his hand. “Bucky, that’s huge!”

“I _know_, I just… everything was going so well and now I’m worried I’m just going to mess things up.”

“You’re not going to, sweetheart,” I said. “You already know that you’re perfect soulmates. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

“Thanks, (Y/N), I…” He trailed off and squinted at me. “You’re just trying to distract me from you and Scott.”

“Who, me? Why would I do something like that?” I shoved my files onto a shelf and headed for the door. “Besides, you’re probably wrong. I’m not gonna worry about it.”

“(Y/N), come on, you can’t run away from this shit!”

“You did.”

“And you tracked me down and helped me face it.”

“Wh-that was different!”

He folded his arms. “Why?”

“It’s-I don’t…” I groaned and raked my hands through my hair. “It just is, okay?!”

“Why are you getting so worked up about this?”

“Maybe it’s because you _cornered_ me and you’re trying to convince me that I’m in love with my best friend.”

“And what if you are? What if you really are perfect soulmates?” He shook his head. “I just want to help you the way you helped me.”

“I appreciate that, Buck, I really, _really_ do. But for me, this just isn’t something you can help with.” His expression fell and a pit formed in my gut. “You’re one of my best friends. I love you, and I love that you want to help, but I’m not… I’ve never been the kind of person that’s been able to manage relationships. I talk myself into them and then realize that I can’t stand the person that I’m with. If that happened with Scott, it’d be like taking a full shot from Tony’s repulsor beam. I don’t think I could take it.”

Bucky nodded. “I get it.”

“You do help me, though,” I said. “You’re there to help me slow down and take stock of what’s happening before reacting. I think I’m more rational because I met you.”

The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “At least I can do something.”

We moved past it, but what he said clung to me for almost two months. I’d never really thought about the possibility of Scott and I being any more than we already were. That’s how it’d always been, and I never had any reason to think otherwise. After talking with Bucky, though, I started noticing everything he’d pointed out. Scott was the one I always gravitated towards. The one I talked to when I needed someone, who I talked to about my weird dreams over breakfast. The person that I missed the most when away from them. It scared me to think about it. I had tried dating in my pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. days, and it just never worked out. I either built up the relationship in my head and was disappointed, or they were looking for their soulmate and were disappointed when I wasn’t it. I never wanted to be the kind of person who chased their soulmate, though. I decided to shove everything to the side and just keep going as I had done my entire life. I refused to let any of it affect my relationship with Scott.

But, as it turned out, things were pretty much out of my control.

Scott had acclimated perfectly to being an Avenger by his one year anniversary. He was friendly with everyone on the team, and was able to actually make eye contact with Steve on occasion without losing complete control of his words (which was a huge improvement for him.) He improved quickly in training and was on more even ground with Sam. He got to the point that he could almost hold his own against me. With that came confidence I’d never seen from him before. He’d joke with Tony and keep up with the biting sarcasm that came with.

However, he was also more physically affectionate than he’d been before, which was something of a challenge for me. Every gentle touch on my elbow, hand in the small of my back, and hug reminded me of the conversation that I had with Bucky. The peace I felt when he smiled at me and the way my stomach clenched when he laughed forced me to recognize what it was that Bucky had seen between the two of us. It became clearer with every movie night, every phone call with Cassie, every joke, every single little touch. I think I would’ve been more worried, had it not been Scott. If Scott was fine with something, it was hard to feel differently. Instead, I decided to get comfortable with it. To turn into the skid, if you will. To my surprise, Scott was even happier because of it. Even more surprising, I found that I was happier because of it as well. Collapsing on the couch with Scott after an awful day of paperwork was infinitely better than complaining about it to Tony.

It went on like that for about three months before things got complicated.

We’d just come back from a week-long mission where we’d just narrowly escaped getting our asses kicked. Everyone, Nat included, stumbled off the quinjet and bundled into the elevator. All of us leaned on one another for support during the ride up to our apartments. Scott and I hung back to say goodnight while everyone else spilled out into the hallway and shuffled to their rooms. We hugged and then went our separate ways. When Scott wandered into the kitchen the next morning, I noticed that he had a new flower in his crown. He stood in the doorway and rubbed his eyes before he squinted at me.

“You have a new flower,” he said.

“Really?” I asked. “I was gonna say the same to you. They’re irises.”

“What?” He picked up the pot that was on the stove so he could get a look. “Holy shit, who’d those come from?”

I shrugged and sipped my tea. “Dunno. But I don’t know who I would’ve gotten mine from either.”

“Seriously?”

I nodded. “What are mine, anyway?”

“They’re peonies,” he said. “A little lighter pink than your carnations.”

“Weird.” I frowned. “Who the hell could these have come from?”

Bucky came into the kitchen and looked between the two of us. “You don’t remember what you did last night?”

“What do you mean ‘what we did last night’? We got back from the mission and went to bed.”

“What’d you do _before_ you went to bed?”

I shook my head. “We hugged and said goodnight.”

“(Y/N), you two kissed,” Bucky said.

“What?” I frowned and tried to remember the night before. All I could remember was the hug. “I don’t remember that.”

“I _saw_ it. The two of you hugged, you pulled back for a second, kissed, and then went your separate ways.”

I stared into my mug while the night before slowly came back to me.

_“Are you sure you’re okay?” Scott asked. “You took a serious beating.”_

_“I’ll be fine, Scott. Nothing a little Tylenol and sleep can’t fix.”_

_“I know you’ll be fine, (Y/N), I just… I’m gonna worry, y’know?”_

_I smiled. “Yeah, I know you are. And I appreciate it. I worry about you too, but all of this is part of the job. Calculated risk and all that.”_

_“Still…”_

_“Look, you were in the thick of it, same as I was. Only difference is the fact that you got real fuckin big. I know that takes a lot out of you.” He nodded and I smiled and reached out to take his hand. “We should get to bed.”_

_He sighed and squeezed my hand. “You’re right.”_

_I laughed and pulled him into a hug. Scott pressed his nose to the crook of my neck and hugged me tightly. He sighed softly when he pulled back and smiled, eyes sleepy and half-open. When he slowly started to lean in, I met him halfway, and our lips touched in a soft, brief kiss._

_“Goodnight, Scott,” I said._

_He grinned lopsidedly. “Goodnight, (Y/N).”_

I shook my head and drank my tea.

“I dunno, man,” Scott said. “Maybe you saw Barton and Romanoff, or something.”

“No, Scott,” I said. His eyes flitted over to me, confused. “It was us. I remember.”

“(Y/N),” he whined. The tips of his ears had pinked.

“What?”

“I… we need to talk,” he said.

I nodded and abandoned my tea on the counter to follow him. He lead me to the reading nook at the back of the little library I helped Tony curate three years previous. He took a seat and I sat on the opposite side of the bench, facing him. He leaned on his knees and scrubbed his hands over his face.

“Scott, look at me.” He shook his head. “You knew, didn’t you.”

“I didn’t think it would turn out like this.”

“What, you thought I’d forgotten about it, so that’s that? Come on, you gotta have more faith in me than that.”

“It’s not that I didn’t want you to remember, I just don’t want to mess up what we have. You’re my best friend.”

I reached out and took his hand. He finally looked at me. “You’re my best friend too, y’know. If you didn’t want-” I cut myself off and sighed. “If you didn’t feel that way about me, I’d understand. You know that, right?”

“Of course! I-wait, what?” He turned slightly so that he could face me. “Do you _want_ me to feel that way about you?”

“I think the question is more whether or not you actually feel that way about me.”

“I mean… yeah, I do, but I didn’t think you’d feel the same.” His brows pulled together. “Do you feel the same?”

“I… yeah, I think so.” I shook my head. “Things get a little jumbled for me when I get to this point.”

He smiled. “I know.”

“Do you want to try this?” I asked. “Us?”

“Do _you_?”

“I don’t really know what I want. I just know that whatever’s happening between us, I don’t know… it feels good being closer to you.”

He nodded. “I feel the same.”

“I just don’t know where we go from here.”

“We don’t have to go anywhere, if you don’t want. We could just coast. Keep doing what we’ve been doing and see what happens.”

“I think I’d like that.”

He grinned. “Yeah?”

“Mhm. We’re doing this.” He pumped his fist and I laughed.

“I have to ask, though,” he said. “What about that kiss?”

I shrugged. “I’ll be very honest with you, I mostly just remember that it happened.”

“Huh,” he frowned. “Does that mean we’re gonna have to try again? For the sake of science, of course.”

I laughed. “Oh, of _course_. If not for science, then to satisfy our own curiosity.”

He chuckled and scooted closer. He pushed my hair off my forehead and traced his fingers over my cheekbone before cupping my jaw. I sighed and leaned into his touch. Scott leaned in and bumped his nose against mine before kissing me. In that moment, it felt like something had finally fallen into place. After everything we’d been through together, kissing Scott just felt natural.

When he pulled away, I slowly opened my eyes and Scott was looking at me, worried. I laughed and cupped his face in my hands. I kissed him again and rested my forehead against his. He sighed and closed his eyes. He ran his thumb over my cheekbone and laughed.

“What?” I asked.

“Maggie’s gonna lose it when we tell her about this,” he said.

I pulled back. “I completely forgot. What about Cassie?”

“She’s the least of our worries. She adores you. Paxton, on the other hand…”

I burst out laughing. “I think we need to be there in person when Paxton finds out.”

“I would _pay_ to see that.”

“We’ll give this-give _us_ a little while before we go telling anyone,” I said. “Except Bucky. Bucky figured it out before I did.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I just didn’t believe him. You know how wigged out I get about romantic soulmates. I didn’t want to turn into everyone I hated in college, especially if it turned out that he was wrong. It wouldn’t have been fair to you.”

Scott shook his head. “Why are you so stupid thoughtful? Half the people I know wouldn’t have thought past their own comfort in that situation.”

“My life revolves around other people. It’d be shitty of be to not consider how you’d feel, especially considering how I feel about you.”

“Y’know, I could kiss you again just for saying that.”

“Prove it, then.”

He waggled his eyebrows. “Oh, I’m gonna.”

I rolled my eyes and he laughed and leaned back in to rub his nose against mine.

I managed to talk Tony into letting Scott take the day off. We spent that time talking. Figuring everything out. Us, our situation, where things might go from there. Of course we wanted things to progress naturally, as we’d been doing for months at that point. We had each other. There wasn’t a rush for anything more than that.

We talked about how we felt about each other. When we started feeling this way, how it changed the way we acted around each other. As it turned out, Scott and I had been slowly falling for each other since he’d come back into my life. I pretty much refused to see it, and Scott hadn’t wanted to say anything, as he and I had always been pretty physically affectionate. He felt that he may have been reading into the situation. I told him that when I started recognizing and understanding my feelings for him. That I was scared. We’d always been there for each other, and it was the one thing that I felt I couldn’t talk to him about. I hated that I felt the need to change the way that I acted around him and it was a relief to know that he understood why I did it. I assured him that I’d never pull away from him like that again. Not without an explanation, at least.

I think Scott recognized his feelings for me first, which was why he had been so comfortable with me. I wish I had let myself feel the same, but I don’t think I was prepared. At the time I said something about not being ready for one another, and Scott agreed. He and I still had our friendship. It was enough for us until we were ready to take the next step. Scott laughed when I told him that I didn’t really think about what that next step would be.

Steve intercepted us when we went out to make lunch and pulled me away to finalize the plans for an upcoming mission, which left Scott to his own devices for a while. I didn’t see him again till that night when I knocked on his door because I couldn’t sleep. He used his t-shirt to smother his laughter when he saw me standing at his door, wrapped in a blanket.

“What? Did you have a nightmare?” he asked.

I shook my head and placed my hand on his chest. “Can’t sleep.”

“You came to the right place, then,” he said.

He covered my hand with his and backed into his room. He guided me over to his bed and urged me to get in. He reached out to me once he’d laid down and I curled into his chest, drawing my blanket closer around me. He wrapped his arms around me and rubbed slow, soothing circles between my shoulder blades.

“Is this okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

He hummed and kissed my forehead. Scott shuffled down the bed so that he could press his forehead to mine, and his shirt rode up slightly. I snuck one hand out from under my blanket and placed it on his exposed hip. He muttered something about cold hands before pulling me closer. I smiled, snuggled into his chest, and immediately fell asleep.

Everything felt easier after that. Smoother, almost. Scott and I were together, in our own way. We didn’t really tell anyone about the relationship, but we didn’t bother hiding it. After a certain point, I think that the team had already assumed that we were together so they didn’t notice any change. Bucky, however, knew something had shifted between the two of us. He didn’t gloat, but it seemed that a weight had been lifted from his shoulders because of it. His relationship with Steve was better for this change in him as well. The next movie night, I looked over and saw Bucky curled into Steve’s side. He caught my eye and I grinned at him and he smiled sheepishly back. It would be quite some time after that when Bucky would be confident in his relationship with Steve, but it was a good start. I was happy for him. Everything finally seemed to be falling into place with the Avengers.

Six months down the line, I got myself shot again on a mission. Nothing serious, but it certainly hurt like hell. Scott had never seen me injured like that before, and got himself all worked up while Steve carried me back to the quinjet. Scott hovered over my shoulder, wringing his hands as he watched Steve patch me up. He sat on the floor beside me on the flight back to New York and held my hand the entire way there. That night, he held me with my back against his chest and his hand splayed possessively across my stomach under my shirt. I covered his hand with mine and silently begged him to talk to me. It took him nearly three hours to find his words.

“You could’ve gotten killed,” he said.

“I’ve been shot before, Scott,” I whispered. “This isn’t anything new to me.”

“I get that, but it’s new to _me_. I don’t- I can’t watch you get hurt like that.”

“I know, babe, and I do my best to stay out of the line of fire, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.”

“I _know_, but I just… I _love_ you, (Y/N). We just figured this shit out. I can’t lose you.”

I placed my hand over Scotts and he pressed his forehead against my neck and sighed.

“I love you too, Scott,” I murmured. I heard his breath hitch and I rolled over so I could face him. “I understand that you’re worried about me, and I appreciate it-”

_“But.”_

“_But_, I’ve been shot before. A few times actually.” He opened his mouth, but I pressed a finger to his lips to stop him. “I’m not saying that it’s fine, and I’m never happy when it happens, but it _does_ happen sometimes. You can wear all the protective gear in the world, but there will always be some kind of vulnerability. I’ll get hurt one way or another, but I’ll heal.”

“Until you don’t.”

I frowned. “Where is this coming from?”

“It’s really starting to hit me how dangerous this job is.” He shook his head. “Cassie’s growing up, and I want to be there for her when she needs me. I want you in her life too.”

“We can always take a step back from fieldwork,” I said. “Tony’s been talking about handing leadership off fully to Steve and only overseeing Rn’D. He and Pepper have been married for almost two years now and want to start a family. Hard to do that when you risk life and limb day in and day out.”

“I don’t want you to step away from a job that you love, (Y/N).”

“You wouldn’t. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. Steve wants to bring in some new talent, and I think it’s a good idea. I’d train them and work mainly in mission research and planning. All of those are things that I love about my job.” I reached up and brushed my fingers against his cheek. “If it relieves some of your stress, that’s just a bonus.”

“Maybe I’ll pull back on fieldwork too,” he said. “Working in the lab with Stark and Banner is exhausting enough as is.”

I laughed. “So, we’ve got a rough plan then, yeah?”

He nodded. “I think so.”

“Can you relax a little about my little accident today then?”

“Not a chance.”

I nodded and traced the seam of the pocket on his shirt. “Y’know, that was the first time we’ve said that we love each other.”

“It was,” he said. “And I do. I love you. So much.”

“I believe you. And I love you too. We don’t lie to each other. It’s one of the things that I appreciate about our relationship.”

“We haven’t lied to each other since the day we met,” he murmurs.

I shake my head. “I want you to talk to me when you’re worried, Scott. We can’t help each other if we don’t put everything on the table.”

“I know.”

“Thank you.”

He rubbed my back in slow, deliberate circles, the way he does when he’s thinking.

“What’s rattling around in that big head of yours?” I asked.

“I think we should tell them about us,” he said. “Maggie, Paxton. Especially Cassie. I think it’s been enough time now.”

“Yeah?”

“I spent enough time away from you to know that a life with you like this is something I’m not gonna give up. You’re stuck with me.”

“Ugh, are you sure?” I joked.

His hand stilled and he dug his fingers into my side and tickled. I kicked out and pushed him off the bed in retaliation. He landed on the carpet with a heavy thud and I immediately scrambled to the edge of the bed.

“Are you okay?!”

He rolled onto his back and laughed. “Yeah, I’m fine. I should’ve known better than to try and tickle you.”

“Damn right.” I rest my chin on the edge of the mattress. “So… we’re telling the family?”

Scott nodded. “Yeah. Is that alright with you?”

I shrugged. "I was ready to tell them two months ago. They’re your family, though. You needed to make the decision.”

“Oh.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. I guess I half expected you to make the decision for me.”

“You’re a grown-ass man, Scott. You can make your own decisions. I’m just along for the ride.”

“I love you,” he said. He pillowed one hand under his head and reached up to me with the other. I took it and laced my fingers with his. “We’re really gonna tell ‘em, huh?”

I nodded. “We are.”

“Okay then. We’ll have to go out there for a visit soon, then.”

“Mhmm,” I hummed. “Now, will you get back up here? The bed’s cold without you and I’d really like to go to sleep.”

“But it’s so comfortable down here.”

I scowled at him. “Fine.”

He laughed and dragged himself back onto the bed. As soon as he pulled the covers up, I curled into his chest and hooked one leg around his.

“You’re so clingy,” he said.

“You knew that going into the relationship. You’re stuck with this now.”

He held me tighter and kissed me softly. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

It took us about a month to get out to California for a visit, but it was well worth the wait when we got there. Cassie had been waiting for us and ran out to greet us when we pulled up. Maggie knew something was up as soon as Scott and I got out of the car. She squinted at us and folded her arms.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

I raised my eyebrows. “What’re talking about?”

Scott picked Cassie up and turned to look at Maggie. “Maybe you’re just seeing things.”

“Uh-uh, no way.” She gestured between the two of us. “There’s something different about the two of you.”

Paxton placed his hands on Maggie’s shoulders. “Give ‘em a break, they’ve been traveling all day.”

“Fine,” Maggie said. “But I swear I’m going to figure out whatever it is that’s bugging me, because I _know_ there’s something.”

Paxton lead Maggie back into the house, leaving Scott and I out in the driveway with Cassie.

“You guys have new flowers,” Cassie whispered.

Scott and I looked at Cassie and then each other, and laughed.

“We do,” Scott said. “But don’t tell your mom. It’s a secret.”

Her eyes lit up and she giggled. “Don’t worry, I can keep a secret.”

I grinned and booped her nose. “I’m sure you can.”

“Are you each other’s new soulmates?” she asked.

I nodded and looked at Scott. “We are.”

“But I thought you were _already_ soulmates.”

“Well, sometimes people get doubles. Your dad and I started out as best friends, and that’s how we got our first flowers. Our relationship changed, and now we have new ones.”

Cassie gasped. “Does that mean you’re _extra_ lucky?”

“Maybe.”

“That’s so _cool_.”

Scott leaned down to kiss me. “I think it is.”

“Ew!” Cassie wriggled out of her father’s arms and ran up to the house. “Come on! Dinner’s probably getting cold!”

Scott and I laughed. He kissed me one more time before he tucked me under his arm, and lead me into the house. Maggie and Paxton had tasked Cassie with setting the table while the two of them served up dinner in the kitchen. Scott and I sat next to each other with Cassie and Paxton on either side of us. Maggie sat directly across from us and stared at us through the entire meal. We made pleasant conversation while we ate, and I held Scott’s hand under the table when I finished.

It took Maggie nearly two hours to finally figure it out.

“You two have new flowers!” she exclaimed.

I nodded absentmindedly and let Scott do the talking.

“We do,” he said.

“Really?” Paxton asked. “Who from?”

Cassie giggled to my left and I smiled and shook my head.

“I’ll give you two guesses,” Scott said. “If you can’t get it in two, there’s no hope.”

Maggie’s eyes went wide. “_No_. Really? You two?!”

Scott nodded and held up our linked hands. “Yeah.”

“How long?”

“Six months and change,” I answered. “It’s still relatively new.”

“Six months is _new_?!”

“Well, yeah,” I said. “Considering the time Scott and I have known each other, this changes our relationship completely. It’s a new relationship entirely.”

“I think it’s great!” Cassie announced.

Scott smiled at her and laughed. “Thanks, Peanut. We think it’s pretty great too.”

Paxton leaned forward with his chin in his hand. “Do you love each other?” he asked.

I pressed my lips together and glanced at Scott. He shrugged and nodded once. I squeezed his hand and looked back at Paxton.

“Yeah,” I said. “We do.”

Paxton smiled, and I’ll admit that I was surprised by his reaction.

“I’m glad you two found each other, then,” Paxton said. “It’s hard to find that connection.”

I looked at Scott and smiled. “I guess it’s easier when you’re not looking.”

Paxton hummed. “Maybe.”

We didn’t stay long and said goodbye the next morning. We talked to Steve and Tony the day we got back about changing our duties down the line. As it turned out, Tony hadn’t talked to Steve about pulling back yet, so we’d afforded him the perfect opportunity to do so. Steve readily agreed, and we began the transition away from active duty with the Avengers.

It took nearly a year before we were able to fully follow through with our plan. In that time, though, things changed drastically for our crazy family.

Steve officially took over as the sole leader of the Avengers and began bringing in new recruits. I pulled out of active duty and began interviewing and testing potential team members. We took our time and made sure that we were certain of the people we were bringing onto the team. It was slow going at first, as most that applied were old S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as well as C.I.A. and F.B.I. who wanted to shoot their shot. I tested them, put them through the paces, but none of them could keep up. Sure, some had good aim, some could hold their own in a fight, but no one could keep up with the team. We got frustrated. We kept looking. In the end, we settled on known entities.

Our first choice was a kid named Peter Parker. He’d wormed his way into our hearts via the Stark Internship. As it turned out, he’d been hiding a secret identity, and had managed to keep it a secret from us the entire duration of his internship. As soon as he graduated he broke down and admitted he was Spider-Man. Tony laughed and hugged him and told him he’d known for years. Giving the kid that promotion from intern to Avenger felt like he was officially part of the family.(He may have been an Avenger by title, but Tony and Bruce liked having him in the lab enough to keep him there most of the time.)

After Peter, America Chavez, AKA: Miss America, Kate Bishop, Clint’s protege, and the newest Hawkeye, and Eli Bradley, known as Patriot, all joined the team and began training as soon as they agreed to the terms and services of being Avengers. They picked up on strategy quickly and worked well together. The real struggle was integrating them with the rest of the team, and even that wasn’t too much of a struggle. It had to have been strange for Wanda and Pietro to suddenly find themselves in senior positions, though. It was hard for Pietro to step up and be a responsible member of the team. It’s been a process, and he still struggles.

Three months in, Tony and Pepper announced that they were adopting, only to find out that Pepper was pregnant two months later. The two of them moved out of the compound and into a little cottage that Tony had built in the wooded area on the other side of the lake. About a year into parenthood, Tony pulled back his role at the compound even further and handed over the RnD reins to Bruce, who panicked for a solid two months before figuring out the direction he wanted to take things. Scott was there to help, of course, and Tony would drop by every now and then to see how things were going.

The facility upstate eventually became the focus of the research and development side of the Avengers, and Steve decided to move all active team members back to the tower in the city. Scott and I moved with them. We shared a floor with Bucky and Steve while the rest of the team had separate, smaller apartments below us. It was nice to finally have a designated space to share with Scott after bouncing between our two rooms at the upstate facility for almost two years.

Gone were the days of extravagant Stark parties in the Avengers tower. It became a place used solely for work and sleep. However, the routine of wake, eat, train, sleep, repeat wore on the team after only two months. Steve and Bucky were tense, and the budding relationship between America and Kate wavered due to the strain. I took it upon myself to enforce a schedule that allowed for more downtime when the team wasn’t preparing for or on a mission. We started up weekly movie nights at the tower and created a meal prep schedule so that everyone had to work in the kitchen at least once or twice a week. Everyone was happier, and I knew it was working when the permanent crease between Steve’s eyebrows began to disappear.

Cassie was able to come out for a summer visit a year after we moved back to the tower. Because the tower was more of a target than it had been before, Scott and I decided to take her back upstate, but only after she got to say hi to the team in the tower. Tony was delighted to meet Scott’s daughter, and Bruce was even pretty comfortable with her climbing up on a stool to watch him work in the lab. She’d ask questions, and Bruce would do his best to explain what he was working on. Scott watched them with pride sparkling in his eyes. In the two and a half weeks we had with her, we took Cassie to see just about every tourist attraction in New York that we possibly could. We cooked meals together and watched movies. We had family game nights with Tony, Pepper, and their two children(Their oldest, at that time, was about four and just learning the joys of games like Candyland and Chutes and Ladders.) With Scott and Cassie near me, it felt like we were a family and, through all of it, I had never been happier. I fell in love with Scott all over again almost three times in those two weeks.

Cassie went home earlier than any of us would have liked, but we knew we’d see her soon enough.

The first real mission with the new Avengers configuration was interesting. It didn’t go as smoothly as Steve might have hoped, but no one died. It was strange to stay behind and monitor their progress from behind a screen, but I realized that I didn’t miss the danger. The constant stress that I had been under while working in the field. I decided that the awkward feeling would pass after a few missions. It took nearly five for it to go away.

Two years after moving into the tower, Bucky knocked on our door and pushed past me into the apartment as soon as I answered. I followed him into the living room, confused.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m freaking out, (Y/N),” Bucky said. He dropped down into my reading chair and stared at the wall.

“What? Why?” I crouched beside him and placed a hand on his knee when he didn’t respond. “What’s going on, Buck?”

He sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’m so in love with him, (Y/N).”

“Steve?” He nodded. “Okay, then what’s wrong?”

He sniffled shook his head. “_Fuck_, I want to marry him.”

“Why don’t you propose to him, then?”

He just laughed. “What’s the point of proposing if you can’t get married?”

“Bucky, two men can get married,” I said. “Queer marriage has been legal country-wide since 2015.”

His eyes went wide. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“You didn’t know?”

“How would I? I was a brainwashed Hydra assassin for seventy years and then immediately secluded myself as soon as I escaped. It’s not like I’m watching the news religiously.”

“Oh, Buck, I’m so sorry,” I took his hands in mine. “I wish I could’ve told you sooner.”

He gripped my hands. “It’s not your fault… I-I can actually ask him to marry me?”

I smiled and pulled one hand away to push his hair out of his face. “Yeah, sweetheart, you can.”

He leaned back and combed his hands through his hair. “Holy shit. I don’t even have a ring.”

“It’s easy enough to get one.”

“Really?” He shook his head and laughed. “Of course it is, forget I even asked.”

“No, these are valid questions to ask.”

“Thank you, (Y/N).”

“Of course. I’m always here when you need me. Always will be.” I sat back on my heels. “You wanna come up with a game plan?”

He nodded. “Would you help?”

“Absolutely.”

Bucky and I dragged the coffee table over to the couch and sat in front of it with my laptop and tablet spread out in front of us. We had so many sources pulled up that I had to resort to displaying some of it on the television. We found rings upon rings and Bucky couldn’t figure out which one Steve might like best. We talked and continued to research until Scott came home from his weekly trip upstate.

He paused briefly in the living room to stare at Bucky and I, now with magazines, newspapers, and other various print-outs strewn about, shrugged, dropped his bags in the bedroom, and came back out to plop down beside me.

“So what are we up to?” Scott asked.

“Bucky’s gonna _propose_,” I whispered.

Scott’s eyes flicked to Bucky, and he grinned. “Really? Congratulations, man, Steve’s a lucky guy.”

Bucky blushed, mumbled something that sounded like “thank you,” and went back to flipping through our open tabs. Scott smiled and kissed me before getting to work on helping Bucky find the perfect ring. When that was done, we set about helping him decide on the way he’d pop the question. That, as it turned out, wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be at the outset.

That Saturday, Scott, Bucky, and I took a trip to the jewelry store that Bucky had settled on. There were a few rings that he’d liked in their catalog, and he wanted to see them for himself before deciding. I stuck with Bucky the entire time, while Scott wandered off at some point to go look at something else in the store.

Bucky narrowed it down to a thin gold band with an opal set into it, and a titanium band with a jade inlay. He stared at both of them for a good half hour and had just picked up the gold ring when Scott came back.

“Is that the one you’re going with?” he asked.

Bucky shrugged. “Why?”

Scott shook his head. “No reason. It’d look nice on Steve, though.”

I reached over and shifted Bucky’s hand so that the stone caught the light. “He’s right. There’s a lot of blue flecks in the stone. It’d compliment his eyes.”

Bucky pinched the band between his fingers and leaned on the glass case.

“You really think this is the one?” he asked.

“Doesn’t matter what we think, Buck. You’re the one who has to decide whether or not it feels right.” He frowned. “How do you feel when you think about giving him this ring?”

Bucky shrugged. “Warm. Certain, maybe.”

“And the other one?”

“It doesn’t really look like an engagement ring,” he said. “I want… I want everyone to know he’s spoken for.”

I smiled and looped one arm through his. “I think you just found your ring, then.”

Bucky handed the ring over to the jeweler and watched them walk away to tally up the cost. Scott patted him on the back and congratulated him. Bucky paid and we left. Bucky carried the box clutched to his chest and a smile on his face the entire walk back to the tower.

Scott commented on it when we got back. It seemed like there was something else he was holding back, but I trusted him to come to me with it when he was ready.

“It’s nice to see him so happy,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile like that before.”

“You’ve just never caught him at the right time,” I said. “But I get it. He deserves this. They deserve each other, especially after all that time they were apart.”

I sat down on the couch with my legs over his lap so that I could rest my head on his chest. Scott kissed my forehead and held me. We wound up falling asleep on the couch that evening and woke up around two in the morning with the back pain to prove it.

A week later, we went on a double date with Bucky and Steve to Coney Island. Scott and I hung back to let the two of them spend some time alone together outside of the tower. Steve and Bucky would drift together and quickly step away from each other before realizing that they don’t have to hide their relationship.

We ate some shitty carnival food, rode rides, and played games until we got bored (at least Scott and I did.) Steve and Bucky flitted from booth to booth, and rode every single ride they could, making up for time that they never had together. Had Scott and I done the same, I’m certain we would’ve made ourselves sick long before we’d planned to go home.

As the sun started to set, Bucky lead Steve over to the ferris wheel. As soon as they’d gotten in the car and started on their first cycle, I bribed the attendant to stop the wheel when they reached the top. Scott and I sat on a bench at the bottom and stared up at the wheel.

“What’s he gonna say?” Scott asked.

I shrugged. “I brought a drone, though. It should be in place right about now.”

“We’re gonna spy on them?”

“Nah, Bucky wanted it recorded for posterity. This is just us making sure the camera and mic are working like they’re supposed to.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and waggled it in front of him. “So?”

“When you put it like _that_…” He reached for my phone and laughed when I held it out of his reach. “Okay, okay, don’t keep us waiting.”

I snorted and pulled up the video feed.

Steve and Bucky sat in the swaying gondola, shoulders pressed together. The audio kicks in and Scott scoots closer to hear over the roar of the amusement park.

_“It’s been a beautiful day,” _Steve said.

Bucky smiled and leaned closer. _“Yeah, it has. It’s been perfect.”_

_“Aw, Buck, I’m glad. I just wish we coulda done it sooner. Made up for lost time, y’know?”_

_“Well… that’s the thing,”_ Bucky said. _“I love what we have. I never thought that we’d get to this point when I came back. And I want to have so much more time with you.”_

Bucky reached for his pocket and I gripped Scott’s arm.

_“What’re you sayin’?”_

_“I…”_ Bucky pulled the ring from his pocket and presented it to Steve, who’s eyes widened when he saw it. “Will you-”

_“Yes,”_ Steve couldn’t get the word out of his mouth fast enough and a huge grin spread across Bucky’s face.

_“Really?”_

_“Fuck yes,”_ Steve laughed and wiped away a few tears. _“Things between us have been perfect.I wanted to ask you, but I didn’t know the first place to start.”_

Bucky took Steve’s hand and slid the ring onto his finger. _“I didn’t either. Didn’t even know two fellas could get married. (Y/N) helped me, though. Helped me with everything but this part.”_

Steve laughed. _“She’s real good at that. Helping.”_

Bucky grinned. _“Yeah, I think it might be a bad habit at this point.”_

He waved to the drone and I waved back without thinking. Steve rolled his eyes and smiled when he saw what Bucky was waving at and waved himself. I laughed. I just barely managed to catch it when Bucky leaned in and pressed his forehead against Steve’s and whispered, _“We’re gonna get married.”_ And Steve kissed him so reverently that I felt tears forming in my eyes.

I directed the drone back to the tower after that and Scott held my hand and rested his head on mine while we waited for the happy couple to come back down to earth. They eventually came trotting over to us, wide grins firmly in place. Bucky held up their linked hands triumphantly and covered his face when Scott and I whooped, cheered, and applauded. Neither shied away when people stopped to stare and Steve happily obliged when I demanded he show me the ring.

Bucky pulled me aside once we got home to thank me.

“It was all you, Bucky, I just gave you a little push,” I said.

“No, (Y/N), I’m serious. You’re my best friend.” He paused for a moment. “You’re my best friend, next to Steve. None of this would’ve happened without you.”

“I’ve already told you, like… a thousand times, you would’ve gotten here eventually. Knowing the way that you and Steve age, you’d probably have had more than long enough. I’m just glad that I get to be here to see it.” I smiled and squeezed his hand. “I’m beyond happy for you guys, believe me.”

“You’ll be my best man, right?”

I grinned. “Are you _serious_?”

“Of course!”

“Hell yes, I’ll be your best man!” I clapped several times and then threw my arms around his neck. He laughed and hugged me back. I pulled away and laughed. “Dude, you’re getting _married_.”

He grinned. “I’m getting _married_.”

It took nearly a year and a half to get the two of them down the aisle. I think they set a date three times before we were finally able to make arrangements to ensure that nothing would get in the way. We called in favors with the newly reformed S.H.I.E.L.D. and got them to monitor things for a measly twenty-four hours.

They wanted to keep the guest list small and most of the guests were Avengers, and a few employees from the facility and tower they’re close to. I did, however, manage to track down Bucky’s sister, Rebecca. She was able to make it with some help from her son. Tony took it upon himself to arrange suits for both Steve and Bucky and even planned out a gold titanium alloy inlay for Bucky’s left ring finger (Bucky cried when he realized he and Steve would actually be able to match. I may or may not have cried with him.) Kate, Natasha, and Wanda took it upon themselves to arrange the venue, flowers, and decorations.

When it came down to the wedding party, Bucky asked Clint to be his groomsman, and Steve asked Sam to be his best man and Tony to be his groomsman. When asked why, Steve simply said that they both knew him equally as well, but Sam could be trusted to maintain some kind of discretion with his speech. Knowing how unpredictable Tony was prone to being, I had to agree with his choice.

And that’s how we got here. Sat in a warehouse, surrounded by impossibly tall trellises draped in wisteria and fairy lights, openly weeping as Steve and Bucky read their vows. As promised, Sam delivered a beautiful speech that left people cry-laughing, followed by a speech of my own that mostly just left people crying. I joined Scott on the sidelines after the dancing started and cuddled up next to him to watch the happy couple take their first dance as husbands.

“I didn’t think it’d be possible for them to be any happier than they already were,” I say.

“It’s gotta be nice to finally feel like you can be fully open about how much you love someone after hiding it for so long.”

Bucky laughs as Steve twirls him and pulls him close to kiss him. I smile and press closer to Scott.

“You think you’d ever want to do that again?” I ask.

Scott pulls back to look at me. “What, get married?”

“Yes.”

He smiles. “(Y/N), are you _proposing_ to me?”

“Yeah. You gonna do something about it?”

He laughs and reaches for his pocket. “Actually, yeah.”

He places a small, black velvet box on the table in front of me and flips it open. I immediately sit up and stare at the ring that sits nestled in the cushions. A simply cut aquamarine is set between two small diamonds on a simple silver band.

All that comes out of my mouth is, “Holy shit.”

“Yeah.”

“How long have you had this?” I ask.

“Since Bucky bought his ring,” he says. “We started talking about our future together around that time, and I figured that I didn’t have to ask right then and there. But things with work and the wedding picked up and a time to ask never really presented itself. Then we started talking about it again-”

I smile and bump his shoulder with mine. “The future?”

Scott laughed. “Yeah, the future. And that’s when I started carrying it around, because I knew the perfect chance was just around the corner. And then you busted in here with your you-ness, and broke out the biggest wedding no-no, and I figured that I had no choice. I had to ask you.”

I shake my head and laugh. “Scott, you’re crazy.”

He leans in slightly. “I’d get down on one knee, but it’s kind of tacky to propose at a wedding.”

I wrap my arms around his arm and rest my head on his shoulder. “I asked you first you know.”

“Answers on three, then?”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay, one.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

“Absolutely-”

“Yes.”

I smile and bite my lip, a giddy feeling building up in my chest as Scott slides the ring onto my finger. “Y’know, this is way better than catching some bullshit bouquet.”

“Lasts longer, too.”

I admire the ring for a moment before leaning up to kiss Scott. “I love you. My idiot, best friend, forever love.”

He smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and kisses me softly. “I love you too, my two-time soulmate award winner.”

I cackle and Scott smiles and kisses my forehead. “You’re so _dumb_, I love you so _much_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading! Comments and kudos would be much appreciated!!


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